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THE 


BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


CHAPTER I. 

THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 

N a certain evening in the spring of 
a certain year (it would be possible 
to be more precise, but for various 
reasons some degree of vagueness seems 
desirable), Lord Guise gave a little dinner at 
his club. He was fond of giving such enter- 
tainments — indeed, he belonged to that par- 
ticular club for no other reason than that it 
was celebrated for the excellence of the fare 
which its members were enabled to set 
before strangers — but, either because he did 
not think it worth while to trouble himself 
about congruity, or because he was persuaded 



» 


THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


that incongruity is more amusing, he never 
chose his guests with any regard to the 
question of whether they were likely to suit 
each other or not. Assuredly he must have 
been aware that the three whom he had 
invited on the present occasion could have 
little in common, unless it might be an 
appreciation of good cooking and good 
wine. 

First there was his old friend and former 
schoolfellow, Percy Thorold, a handsome, 
square-faced, dark-haired, and rather serious- 
looking man of a little over thirty, who had 
entered Parliament at an early age, had soon 
won distinction as a debater, and was now 
a Junior Lord of the Treasury. Then there 
was that very good-looking and, as most 
people were inclined to think, hopelessly 
good - for - nothing young fellow, Eustace 
Moreton. Moreton had been in the Guards 
for a time ; but had resigned his commission, 


THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 


3 


averring that he could not stand the expense. 
Whether he or his father found it a less 
expensive plan that he should reside in 
London without any profession at all, may 
be open to doubt ; but at all events he had 
no means of earning his living, nor prospect 
of any, nor desire for any. He was clean- 
shaven, in obedience to the latest edict of 
fashion ; he had curly fair hair which grew 
low down upon his broad forehead ; his 
sleepy blue eyes expressed languid con- 
tentment with a world which had treated 
him, upon the whole, quite as well as he 
could expect. Socially he was much in 
request, for he was a good dancer, did not 
object to London balls, and knew how to 
make himself agreeable. Finally, there was 
little Mr. Schneider, of whom not much 
was known either by his host or by anybody 
else, except that he had a great deal of 
money, that he was to be seen driving 


4 


THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


four-in-hand in the Park and elsewhere, 
that his late father had been a German 
banker, and that he was very anxious 
to gain a firm foothold in society. Of the 
four, Lord Guise himself was the eldest 
and by far the least smart in appearance. 
His hair, which he wore rather longer than 
is the custom in these days, was not very 
carefully brushed ; he had a short reddish 
beard ; his clothes fitted him loosely ; his 
features were large and irregular. Altogether 
he was a commonplace - looking person, 
although, as he was the eldest son of a 
duke, many people had been able to dis- 
cover in him an air of distinction. He 
passed for being eccentric ; but this, perhaps, 
only meant that his manners were not as 
good as they might have been, and that he 
was still unmarried. 

That Lord Guise remained a bachelor, 
notwithstanding the many seductive and 


THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 


5 


more or less direct invitations which he had 
received to change his condition, was due 
not in the least to eccentricity, but to his 
profound conviction that when a man binds 
himself for life to any woman, the chances 
are at least ten to one that that man will 
sooner or later rue an act of irreparable 
folly. He was fond of saying this, and he 
was saying it now to his three guests, who 
listened to him with a good deal of interest 
and attention. 

“ Marriage as an institution is a necessity, 
of course/’ he observed, in his slow, slightly 
drawling accents ; “ nobody would think of 
disputing that. What I protest against is 
the English system of arranging marriages. 
What the deuce has love to say to the 
question ? Is any man such a consum- 
mate ass as to believe that he will be in 
love with the same woman all his life 


6 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

“ I can imagine a man being ass enough 
for that,” Thorold said, with a slight smile. 

“Well, on second thoughts, so can I. 
In point of fact, that is just what one does 
imagine each time that one falls in love. 

I put it wrongly ; what I ought to have 
said was that no man can be such an ass 
as to believe in the perpetual duration of 
another man’s love.” 

“ Or of a woman’s love,” added Moreton, 
sighing, and gazing sentimentally into his 
empty champagne glass. 

Lord Guise made a sign to the waiter, 
and resumed his homily. 

“The reason why so many married people 
hate each other is that they have started 
with* an absurd promise to perform impossi- 
bilities. One should begin as one means 
to go on, and if they were to set out with 
a good, quiet feeling of mutual regard, it is 
probable enough that they would manage 


THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 7 

to pull through without much discomfort. 
I don’t say that matrimony under any 
circumstances would be enjoyable; but it 
might be made endurable.” 

Little Mr. Schneider, who had a round 
rosy face and projecting eyes, nodded 
approvingly and rapped the table. 

“ Just so ! ” he exclaimed ; “ I thoroughly 
agree with you,” 

“ I thought you would,” observed Lord 
Guise, drily ; “ you generally do, you know. 
But what about you, Thorold ? Do you 
agree with me?” 

In truth, his harangue, though ostensibly 
general in its scope, had been intended to 
apply specially to an individual case ; and 
this intention was no secret to Mr. Thorold, 
who answered : 

“ Oh, I dare say you are right. Person- 
ally, I shouldn’t much care to marry upon 
the French plan; but very likely it works 


8 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

better than ours in the majority of instances. 
However, it doesn’t greatly signify whether 
you are right or wrong, because you will 
hardly bring about a revolution in the 
national ideas.” 

“ I don’t know that,” said Lord Guise. 
u Every movement must be started by some- 
body, and humble as I am, I may be the 
first to set the ball rolling in the right 
direction. Not that I should advocate the 
adoption of the French system without 
reserve ; the mother-in-law is too prominent 
a personage in French households for my 
taste. All I want men to see is that having 
fallen in love with a woman isn’t a good 
reason for marrying her — quite the contrary. 
It is obvious that the very worst judge 
of a woman is a man who is in love with 
her. Perhaps you’ll admit that much, 
Thorold ? ” 

The eyes of his two fellow-guests were 


THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 9 

turned expectantly and with some covert 
amusement upon the young politician, whose 
engagement to a very well-known lady had 
recently been broken off, and who was 
supposed to be not a little sore about the 
affair. He shrugged his shoulders and 
replied : 

“ Oh, certainly ; 111 admit that much. 
But after all, the question is only one of 
degree ; what do we know of women even 
when we are not in love with them ? The 
best plan is to give them a wide berth.” 

“ Only that’s impossible,” observed Lord 
Guise. “ Shall we go upstairs and smoke 
now ? ” 

The subject was dropped for the moment, 
but was resumed later on in the smoking- 
room by Eustace Moreton, who professed 
sentiments of the most atrocious cynicism 
with regard to the opposite sex. His career, 
though brief, had been eventful in an 


IO 


THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


amatory sense, and in the matter of con- 
stancy he had not appeared to shine 
conspicuously ; but he now assured his 
hearers that in no single instance had he 
been the first to cool off. 

“ My belief,” said he, solemnly, “ is that 
women never care for a fellow for his own 
sake. Their one object is to entice him into 
marrying them, and the moment they find 
out that he isn’t quite prepared to go such 
frightful lengths they chuck him aside like an 
old glove.” 

This opinion of the utter unreasonable- 
ness of women received confirmation from 
Mr. Schneider, who nodded his head, and 
remarked sententiously, “ I'm quite with you 
there, Moreton.” Mr. Schneider was one of 
those charming but too rare people who 
never contradict. 

“ Let us endeavour to be just even to 
women, who are so seldom just to us,” said 


THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 


ii 


Lord Guise. “ It is only just to them to say 
that in some respects they are not half such 
fools as we are, and it would be unjust to 
blame them, situated as they are, for wanting 
to get married. Of course they want to 
get married, and of course they do their 
best to hook us. But why are we always in 
such a hurry to swallow the hook ? That’s 
what I want to know.” 

“ Some of us don’t,” observed Thorold. 

“ H’m ! Some of us have the good luck 
to be thrown back into the water because we 
were too easily caught.” 

Thorold opened his lips to reply, but, 
thinking better of it, twirled his moustache, 
and held his peace. 

“ What we require,” Lord Guise went 
on, “ is a Bachelors’ Mutual Aid and Protec- 
tion Society. As I said before, it’s absurd 
to blame the women, who only follow their 
natural predatory instincts. The best of 


12 


THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


them do it ; but goodness knows there are 
plenty of bad ones about ; and how is a poor 
innocent male creature to cope with them ? 
Given a certain amount of good looks, they 
must be clumsy indeed if they can’t make us 
lose our heads — after which we are done for. 
Not a season passes without my hearing of 
half-a-dozen captures which are simply 
heartrending . 0 

“ You yourself have escaped so far, how- 
ever , 0 remarked Thorold. 

“ Only because I am blessed with an 
exceptionally phlegmatic temperament. If I 
had yielded to first impulses I should have 
been a miserable slave at this hour. You’re 
a rich man ; so you ought to know something 
of the temptations which we have to contend 
against . 0 

“ Without being a rich man,” chimed in 
Moreton, “ I may say that I know something 
of them. Nobody is more devoted to women 


THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 


i3 


than I am — or more convinced that they are 
one and all humbugs. ,, 

Mr. Schneider gave it to be understood 
that his own experience had led him to a 
similar melancholy conclusion. 

" But how,” asked Thorold, “ do you 
propose to remedy this distressing state of 
things ? ” 

“ As I tell you,” answered Lord Guise : 
“by the establishment of a Mutual Protec- 
tion Society. A man from the moment that 
he falls in love becomes non compos mentis. 
His friends ought to take charge of him for 
his own good ; but of course they can’t do 
that unless he has given them the necessary 
authority while still in possession of his 
senses. One has often heard of unfortunate 
fellows with a constitutional disposition for 
drink, who, when they felt the fit coming on, 
have gone of their own free will, and had 
themselves shut up in institutions where 


i 4 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

liquor couldn’t be obtained. Well, I should 
suggest the application of that principle to 
matrimony. When a man finds that he is 
upon the brink of making a fool of himself, 
let him go to his friends and say : ‘ Look 
here, if you fellows don’t hold me back, I 
shall propose in a day or two to Miss A, or 
Lady B. In my opinion she is an angel ; 
but I am aware that in my present condition 
my opinion isn’t worth a straw. Now you 
must do the best you can for me.’ I’m quite 
serious,” added Lord Guise, observing a 
broad smile upon the faces of his audience. 

“ And what would you do with the poor 
lover when he threw himself upon your pro- 
tection in that pathetic way ? ” asked Thorold. 
“ Would you lock him up ? ” 

“ Well, no, he could hardly expect me to 
take all that trouble. Besides, I am not sure 
that it would be legal. My idea would be 
that each member of the society should bind 


THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 


*5 


himself to be guided by the instructions of fiis 
friends for a certain length of time — say six 
months. Of course, they might sanction his 
marriage at once ; but if they saw that he 
was about to commit moral suicide, they 
would tell him that he mustn’t see or speak 
to the lady for another half-year. When 
that time was up he would be free to dash 
his head against a brick wall if he chose ; 
but the chances are that the interval afforded 
him for sober reflection would be sufficient. 
Why shouldn’t we four make a start here and 
now ? We seem to be pretty well agreed, 
and we’re none of us in love at present, are 
we?” 

“Not more than usual,” answered More- 
ton, speaking for himself. 

“ Not the least bit in the world,” answered 
Mr. Schneider, complacently. 

Thorold, after a brief pause, said : “ I 
believe 1 may swell the chorus. Everybody 


16 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

knows that 1 was engaged to my cousin, 
Lady Belvoir, a short time ago, and that I 
am not engaged to her now. As the affair 
was broken off by mutual consent, it may be 
assumed that there is no longer any love lost 
between us.” 

“ I’m glad you mentioned that, Thorold,” 
observed Lord Guise, leaning back in his 
chair and blowing a cloud of smoke towards 
the ceiling. “ I didn’t like to cite your case 
without your permission, though its very 
much in point.” 

“ I have no objection to your citing it ; 
but is it in point ? ” 

“Well — isn’t it? A more fortunate 
escape I never heard of. Heaven forbid 
that I should call Sybil Belvoir a suitable 
wife for any man ; but of all men in the world 
I can’t imagine one less suited to be her 
husband than you.” 

“ Oh, very likely,” returned Thorold, 


THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 


i7 


with a touch of impatience. “ I don’t see 
how that makes mine a case in point, though. 
We found out our unsuitability for ourselves; 
we weren’t indebted to you or any other 
friend for the discovery.” 

Lord Guise smiled very slightly. 

“ You have escaped,” he said ; “but you 
have had an uncommonly narrow shave. 
What I meant was that if you had belonged 
to our Protection Society, you would never 
have been allowed to run such a risk. Now, 
would either of you fellows — of course, this 
is a confidential conversation, and what we 
say between ourselves will go no farther — 
would either of you have permitted Thorold 
to marry Lady Belvoir ? ” 

“ Rather not ! ” exclaimed Moreton. 

Mr. Schneider was less emphatic, and 
more prolix ; but the upshot of his remarks 
was that if he had been given any power in 
the matter, he really would not have been 


1 8 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


able to reconcile it with his conscience to 
sanction such a union. 

“ You see,” said Lord Guise, turning to 
Thorold, “ that you would have been in safe 
hands. For my own part, I have known 
Sybil Belvoir pretty nearly all her life ” 

“ So have I,” interrupted Thorold. 

“ Exactly ; you have known her without 
knowing her. Everybody in London — even 
our friend Schneider, who, I believe, has 
never exchanged a word with her — seems 
to have been better acquainted with her than 
you were. For that matter, her history 
speaks for itself. She was hardly out of the 
schoolroom when she insisted, against the 
wish of all her own people, upon marrying 
Belvoir — who is dead now, so we’ll say no 
more about him, except that he drank him- 
self to death. As you are aware, it wasn’t 
exactly a happy marriage. Since she be- 
came a widow, she has flirted — to put it 


THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 19 

mildly — with every man, eligible or ineligible, 
whom she thought it might amuse her to 
ensnare ; she has ” 

Here Thorold interrupted the speaker 
for the second time. 

“ I don’t think we need go into all that,” 
he said. 

“Very well ; we won’t. I merely wished 
to point out to you that a woman who has 
made herself so unpleasantly notorious can 
still manage to deceive even a clever fellow 
like you.” 

Moreton said very gravely that Lady 
Belvoir was a downright bad lot — “ about as 
bad as they make them,” — and for a moment 
it looked as if Mr. Schneider was about to 
express verbal concurrence. But Mr. 
Schneider, upon reflection, contented him- 
self with wagging his head. Lady Belvoir, 
bad though she might be, was after all a 
leader of society, and one should not speak 


c 2 


20 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

evil of magnates — that is, until one has lost 
all hope of being invited to their houses. 

“ It isn’t every man,” Lord Guise re- 
sumed, presently, “ who can expect to have 
Thorold’s luck. Yesterday it was his turn ; 
to-morrow, my poor Schneider, it may be 
yours. With your great personal and — er — 
financial advantages, you occupy a perilous 
position, and ought to be very careful. As 
for Moreton, he is exposed to dangers of a 
somewhat different kind, but not the less 
real on that account. I myself am not, 
perhaps, very likely to fall a victim at this 
time of day ; still, one should never be too 
arrogant. Let us, therefore, while we are 
still in full possession of our senses, agree 
to form square, as it were, and to stand 
shoulder to shoulder and back to back 
against the common foe.” 

Little Mr. Schneider looked much 
flattered. He was pleased that his social 


THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 


21 


advantages should be recognised, and still 
more pleased that he should be invited to 
take any sort of engagement upon him in 
such good company. He at once signified 
his willingness to do as he was requested ; 
and Eustace Moreton followed suit, with the 
remark that he was always grateful to any- 
body who would take care of him. Only 
Thorold, whose attention had wandered a 
little during the last few minutes, demurred. 

“ What is this desperate practical joke 
that you want to play upon us, Guise ? ” he 
asked. 

“It isn’t a practical joke at all ; it’s 
practical earnest, and I have already ex- 
plained my object,” answered Lord Guise. 
“In case of necessity, we are to have the 
power of ensuring each other a breathing 
space of six months, that’s all. Now I’ll 
administer the form of oath — or, if you 
prefer it, you shall be at liberty to affirm. 


22 


THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


Perhaps it will be sufficient for us to bind 
ourselves by our honour as gentlemen.” 

The smoking-room was now all but 
deserted, the members of the club who had 
been dining there having gone away, while 
those who were spending the evening at 
theatres or parties had not yet come in. In 
one of the far corners a fat man, with his 
hat tilted over his eyes, was slumbering 
stertorously ; a little nearer, another was 
nodding over the evening paper. 

“ I think,” said Lord Guise, “ that we 
may proceed to business without fear of 
being betrayed.” 

Accordingly the four men drew their 
chairs close together, and each in turn 
solemnly repeated the following formula : 

“ I promise upon my honour as a gentle- 
man that if from this day forth I should at 
any time form the intention of asking a lady 
to become my wife, I will at once call a 


THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 


23 


meeting of this society to consider my 
intention, and make such inquiries as may 
be thought necessary. I also promise upon 
my honour as a gentleman that in the event 
of a majority of the society deciding against 
the lady in question, I will abstain for the 
space of six clear calendar months from the 
date of such decision from holding any com- 
munication with her, whether verbal or 
written, direct or indirect.” 

“ That about finishes me? observed 
Eustace Moreton ; “ I may now look for- 
ward to a lonely old age. Hitherto I have 
always thought that, if the worst came to 
the worst, I might fall back upon the 
customary elderly heiress ; but now that 
bright vision must be dismissed. No 
heiress, however elderly, could be expected 
to stand total desertion for six months at a 
stretch.” 

“ My dear fellow,” said Lord Guise, 


24 


THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


“ why should you take it for granted that 
the society would decide against the elderly 
heiress ? For my part, if I believed her 
to be a sensible, well-conducted person, I 
should give my vote in her favour. Our 
object is to promote one another’s happiness, 
and nobody who knows you can doubt that 
you would be happier with an elderly woman 
than with a young one. Sensible elderly 
women make allowances — which you are 
pretty sure to require.” 

Thorold rose to wish his host good-night. 
In doing so he thought it necessary to 
mention that it was from a purely unselfish 
motive that he had joined the newly-con- 
stituted society. He himself, he declared, 
was a non-marrying man, and proposed to 
remain so. If, however, he could be in- 
strumental by voice or vote in restraining 
others from the commission of an act of 
folly, he should, of course, be very glad. 


THE SPIDER AND THE FLIES 


25 


“ I wonder,” chuckled Mr. Schneider, 
after he had gone, “which of us will be 
the first to call a meeting. I shouldn’t be 
surprised if it were Thorold, in spite of what 
he says, and I shouldn’t be much surprised 
if he were to contemplate proposing a second 
time to Lady Belvoir.” 

“ That only shows, my dear Schneider,” 
remarked Lord Guise, “ that, notwithstand- 
ing your natural acuteness, you haven’t quite 
taken Thorold’s measure. He has had a 
thorough sickener of women of the world ; 
the next person with whom he will fall in 
love will be a pious little girl who goes to 
church on week-days, and makes under- 
garments for the poor.” 

Schneider and Moreton walked away 
together. 

“ Is Lady Belvoir really as bad as she 
is made out ? ” asked the former of the latter 
with some curiosity. 


26 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

“ Worse,” answered Moreton, laconically. 
“ I only know her slightly ; but I have heard 
quite enough about her. I can forgive a 
woman for being wicked,” he added ; “ not 
being over and above good myself, I am able 
to sympathise with the failings of others. 
But I’ll be hanged if I can forgive a woman 
who has no heart ! ” 


CHAPTER II. 


MISS LESLIE 

T so happened that while the 
abominable conspiracy just de- 
scribed was being hatched in St. 
James’s Street, two ladies, seated comfortably 
before the fire in a luxuriously - furnished 
drawing-room in Carlton House Terrace, 
were discussing the chief conspirator after 
a fashion which it may safely be assumed 
that that self-satisfied nobleman would not 
have liked, if he could have heard it 

“ Lord Guise,” Lady Belvoir was saying, 
“ is one of those unfortunate men who flatter 
themselves that they thoroughly understand 
women. I have noticed that people of that 
kind invariably end by coming to signal 



28 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

grief. Sometimes they marry their cooks, 
sometimes they do even worse ; but they 
always marry. Lord Guise has a holy 
horror of me, and loses no opportunity of 
telling me so. If it were at all worth the 
trouble, I really think I would marry him 
myself, just to show him how very easily 
the thing can be done.” 

Lady Belvoir was under the impression 
that she could marry anybody ; and it is 
not for a very humble member of the 
opposite sex to assert that she was mis- 
taken. That she had not married Percy 
Thorold was doubtless due to the cir- 
cumstance that, after full consideration, she 
had not chosen to do so ; that she had 
married that utterly disreputable and almost 
uncivilised personage, the late Lord Belvoir, 
was a proof that her powers of fascination 
were of no mean order. The power of 
beauty, at all events, she possessed to its 


MISS LESLIE 


2 9 


fullest extent. Tall, superbly modelled, and 
gifted with a pair of large, liquid brown 
eyes, which were of a nature (as eyes so 
often are) to mislead physiognomists, she 
had shone without a rival during her first 
season, and now, at the age of four-and- 
twenty, was very generally spoken of as the 
handsomest woman in London. Her mouth 
was perhaps a trifle hard at times, though 
rather in expression than in form, and it 
might have been predicted that in another 
ten years her nose would be too decidedly 
aquiline and the line of her jaw too strongly 
defined. However, as she herself would 
have said, it really cannot matter much what 
a woman’s nose and jaw may look like after 
she has passed her thirtieth year. She was 
believed to be extremely wealthy ; but as 
a matter of fact her jointure did not reach 
the figure commonly ascribed to it, and she 
lived extravagantly. Of suitors she had no 


3 o THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

lack, nor was she likely to lack them for a 
long time to come. 

“ But of course it wouldn’t be worth 
while,” her companion said, quickly. “ I 
don’t understand why you ever think it 
worth while to make conquests of men 
whom you don’t care for. The process 
must be very disagreeable for you, I should 
think, and everybody knows that you can 
do it if you like.” 

“ Oh, the process isn’t so disagreeable,” 
answered Lady Belvoir, laughing ; “ and as 
for Lord Guise, he doesn’t know that I 
could do it if I liked. That’s just the 
point.” 

‘'Are you really going to take the 
trouble of convincing him, then?” Miss 
Leslie asked, with a somewhat disgusted 
look. 

Dorothy Leslie was a girl of eighteen 
who had been brought up to London by 


MISS LESLIE 


3 1 


her mother to be presented at one of the 
first Drawing-Rooms of the year, and to 
make her cllbut in society, in so far as 
society might prove willing to open its 
doors to people who had not a great many 
influential acquaintances. Whether Lady 
Belvoir ought or ought not to be included 
in that category, Mrs. Leslie was not quite 
sure, nor had she felt altogether easy about 
the intimacy which had sprung up between 
her daughter and the notorious lady whose 
dower-house was situated near their home 
in the north. Dorothy, however, was given 
to forming her own opinions and choosing 
her own friends ; and Dorothy liked Lady 
Belvoir, although she so little resembled her. 
What was, perhaps, more to the purpose, 
was that Lady Belvoir liked Dorothy. 
Lady Belvoir may have had her good 
qualities— if so, they were not very per- 
ceptible to the ordinary male intelligence ; 


32 


THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


still, she may have had them, because almost 
everybody has — and it is conceivable that 
freshness, candour, and an unquestioning 
faith in the precepts and doctrines of the 
Established Church may have been attractive 
to her, as reminding her of days when she 
herself had been equally unsophisticated. 
In any case, she had made a friend of this 
girl, who, it would perhaps be both 
ungracious and unfair to remark, was not 
pretty enough to be her rival. 

The standard of beauty seems to vary 
as much and as often as do the points of a 
dog, so that it is really impossible to tell 
from year to year what will take a prize ; 
but even in these days, when irregularity of 
feature is esteemed a charm, it is probable 
that few people would have said in so many 
words that they considered Dorothy Leslie 
a pretty girl. On the other hand, a great 
many people admired her very much. Her 


MISS LESLIE 


33 


iron-gray eyes, at all events, were worthy 
of admiration, and her dark hair grew 
abundantly. She had, moreover, a neat 
little figure and a singularly pleasant voice. 

In answer to her question, Lady Bel voir 
said : 

“ Oh, I don’t know ; most likely not. 
I have known him for a long time without 
having taken that trouble. Just at present 
I am rather provoked with him because he 
is under the impression that it was he who 
broke off my engagement to Percy Thorold, 
and I am sure Jie is hinting as much to 
everybody who will listen to him.” 

“ Had he anything to do with it?” Miss 
Leslie asked, after a pause. 

“ Not he ! He did his best — for Percy’s 
sake, of course— to persuade me that I was 
going to make a very great mistake ; but 
I had found that out without his help. 
There was a time,'' continued Lady Belvoir, 


D 


34 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

with a retrospective vawn,“when I was 
seriously enamoured of Percy. He was a 
good many years younger then, and I was 
very young indeed — a mere child, in fact. 

I remember promising in a vague sort of 
way to marry him some day. Well, then 
I married poor Belvoir, and Percy, like a 
good many others, was shocked. I didn’t 
see much of him until I was free again, 
and then he came back, and I was touched 
by his constancy, and so before I knew 
where I was, lo and behold, I was engaged 
to him ! But it would never have done. 
He is a good fellow, but he has old-fashioned 
ideas, and he has gone in strongly for 
politics, which bore me to death. Besides, 
he disapproved of my ways and style of 
conversation, and he took to expressing his 
disapproval, which was- intolerable. He 
pretended to be quite cut up when I told 
him that I had had enough of him ; but in 


MISS LESLIE 


35 


reality he was just as relieved to be set at 
liberty as I was. We are now the best 
of friends. I think you would like him, 
because he is awfully clever, and takes 
serious views of life, as you do, and he is 
going to be Prime Minister or something of 
that kind before he dies. Come and meet 
him some evening at dinner, will you ? ” 

“ Thank you ; I should like it very 
much,” answered Dorothy. “ But — but 
does he still come to dinner with you ?” 

“ He will if I ask him ; why shouldn’t 
he ? We are cousins, you know, and, 
as I tell you, we are very good friends. 
Added to which, it would be a little too 
ridiculous to allow oneself to be cut by 
all the men whom one has been obliged 
to throw over.” 

Percy Thorold had never had the 
least intention of cutting his cousin, and 
she was not far wrong in her assertion 


D 2 


36 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

that the recovery of liberty had been as 
welcome to him as it had been to her. 
That she and he were the best of friends, 
was, however, not quite so accurate a 
statement. She had treated him a little 
too badly for that, and although he no 
longer loved her, he had been in love 
with her for a great many years. He was 
glad to have been jilted, but he could not 
altogether forgive the jilt; nor, in truth, is 
any man likely to forgive a woman who has 
destroyed his faith in all women. Never- 
theless, he accepted her invitation to dinner 
for the following Sunday, his chief reason 
for doing so being that he did not want 
her or anybody else to imagine that he 
was brooding over his wrongs. 

Dorothy Leslie received a somewhat 
hesitating permission from her mother to 
be present at the same informal gathering. 

M J don’t quite like Sunday dinner- 


MISS LESLIE 


37 


parties,” said Mrs. Leslie, who, perhaps, 
did not realise the difficulties experienced 
by modern legislators in meeting their 
friends on any other evening in the week. 
“ And I think,” she added, more reasonably, 
“ that Lady Belvoir ought sometimes to ask 
me. She seems to forget my existence.” 

Lady Belvoir had not forgotten that 
there was a Mrs. Leslie ; but her impression 
was that Mrs. Leslie was a bore, and 
she would no more have thought of asking 
a bore to one of her little dinners, than 
of offering uneatable food to her guests. 
These little dinners, which she had taken to 
giving since her widowhood, were in a fair 
way to become famous. She had a c//<y who 
was master of his craft ; she “ knew every- 
body worth knowing ” — according to a phrase 
which may perhaps be misleading, yet is 
accurate enough for its purpose— and without 
giving herself much trouble about it, she was 


38 THE BAFFLED COJVS PIE A TOES 


always able to bring together people who 
were likely to get on well together. Percy 
Thorold, for example, got on remarkably 
well with Miss Leslie, whom he took in to 
dinner, and in whom he was delighted 
to recognise a girl as yet untainted with 
“ the something that infects the world.” 
The world, at which we are all apt to 
rail as we approach middle age, is doubtless 
what we choose to think it or make it. In 
the opinion of this rising statesman it was 
• a melancholy failure, inhabited by millions 
of toilers and sufferers, and governed by a 
few thousands, who, upon the whole, used 
their power selfishly and unwisely. He was 
a Conservative because he believed that, 
bad as the existing state of things is, it 
would be even worse were the toiling 
and suffering millions to get the upper hand ; 
at heart and in theory, he was probably 
an advanced Radical. The upper class, to 


MISS LESLIE 


39 


which he himself belonged, he considered 
to be almost, if not altogether rotten, 
allowing it no virtue save that of courage, 
and foreseeing without desiring its inevitable 
submersion. Probably he would have en- 
tertained a higher opinion of it, if Lady 
Belvoir had been a good woman ; but he 
had not pushed self-analysis quite so far 
as to have divined that circumstance. 

To such a pessimist it was naturally 
refreshing to encounter a young woman 
of his own station whose ideas were simple 
and direct, who did not affect the uninformed 
scepticism which has become fashionable, 
who had brought a tolerably clear intelli- 
gence to bear upon contemporary politics, 
and who did not in the least despair of the 
future glory and greatness of her native land. 

“ I think you are quite wrong to sneer 
at politics,” she said, after she had led him 
to confide certain views of his to her; “and 


40 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

I don’t believe you are sincere, either. II 
you are really convinced that all your party 
or any other party cares for is office, and 
if you yourself don’t care for it, why do you 
waste your time in the House of Commons, 
when you might be hunting, or shooting, 
or budding roses, or amusing yourself in 
some pleasant, healthy way ? ” 

“ Because I am idiot enough to be am- 
bitious, I suppose,” he answered, with a 
shrug of his shoulders. “ Because, like 
the other fools, I really rather enjoy the 
idea of being pointed at and gaped at.” 

“No; because you hope to leave the 
world a little better than you found it.” 

“ Oh, I am not so ambitious or so 
sanguine as all that,” answered Thorold, 
laughing. He shrank, as most Englishmen 
do, from ascribing high motives to himself, 
and even from hearing them ascribed to 
him. Still, he knew that the girl’s estimate 


MISS LESLIE 


4i 


of him was true enough, and how could 
he help admiring her penetration in having 
discovered a secret which he had been at 
such pains to conceal ? He found, too, that 
•there were many points in respect of which 
her tastes were identical with his own. 
She was very fond of music ; she loved 
a country life ; she did not particularly care 
for what she had seen of the society of 
London ; nor was she more passionately 
devoted to dancing than a girl of her age 
ought to be. All this made her a pleasant 
companion in spite of her sex ; and, after 
all, it was not the poor thing’s fault that 
she had been born a woman. As for the 
other women present, they were women 
of the world, and, by that fact alone, odious 
for the time being in Thorold’s eyes. 
Therefore it was that he scarcely spoke a 
word to anybody but Miss Leslie the whole 
evening, and that, when he took his leave, 


42 


THE BAFFLED CONS LIRA TORS 


'Lady Belvoir looked at him with a peculiar 
smile and raised eyebrows. 

“ Already ! ” she said. 

“ Already what ? ” he inquired. 

" Already consoled. Don’t mind me/ 
pray ; my vanity is proof against any 
wounds of that kind. You see, my dear 
Percy, I haven’t the shadow of a doubt 
that I could whistle you back if I wished — 
which Heaven forbid!” 

Thorold’s laugh did not very successfully 
conceal his annoyance. 

“You have my full permission to try,” 
he could not help saying. 

“Thanks; but I won’t take advantage 
of your generosity. I have too vivid a 
recollection of certain lectures. You will 
never have to lecture Dorothy Leslie, who 
is a nice girl in every way, and will suit 
you admirably. I shall have much pleasure 
in introducing you to her mother any day 


MISS LESLIE 


43 


you like, and I shall at once begin saving 
up my pocket-money, so as to be able to 
buy a handsome wedding present for you. 
Good night. ” 

Thorold did not trouble himself to 
contradict her. He went away with a 
comfortable conviction that he was now 
entirely heart-whole, and tolerably certain of 
remaining so. Still, regarding Miss Leslie, 
as he was able to do, in a dispassionate, 
paternal sort of light, he quite agreed with 
Lady Belvoir that she was a very nice girl, 
and he was sorry that there seemed to be 
so little likelihood of his ever meeting her 
again* 


CHAPTER III. 


FORTUNATE MR. SCHNEIDER 

ITTLE Mr. Schneider was one of 
those fortunate mortals whose lot 
appears, and may well appear, 
enviable to the rest of humanity. His 
wealth was practically boundless ; he had 
no estates, no relations, no duties, or 
worries, or responsibilities of any kind ; and 
if he had also no mentionable ancestors, 
that is but a very small misfortune in the 
days in which we live. Nevertheless, like 
ninety-nine hundredths of our perverse race, 
he was not satisfied, and the reason of his 
dissatisfaction was that, in spite of all his 
lavish expenditure, he had not yet sue 
ceeded in taking the society of the British 



FORTUNATE MR. SCHNEIDER 


45 


metropolis by storm. This feat he was 
passionately, pathetically desirous of accom- 
plishing, and there is no saying what price 
he would have considered too heavy to pay 
for the privilege of admission into those 
inner circles on the edge of which he 
hovered with longing, wistful eyes. His 
ambition was not a very exalted nor a 
very sensible one, but at least it was harm- 
less ; and, in truth, little Mr. Schneider 
was a harmless little man, though, of course, 
he would not have liked to be so described. 
His impression of himself was that he 
was a terrible fellow and that the pace at 
which he lived was enough to take anybody’s 
breath away. The pace at which he drove 
was certainly calculated to produce that 
effect upon those who sat behind him ; but 
this was because he had not the slightest 
control over his horses and was blessed 
with the sublime courage of ignorance. 


46 THE BAEFLED CONSPIRATORS 

It is impossible to say how he managed 
to get his coach in and out of the Park 
and through the crowded streets of London 
without killing himself and his freight; pro- 
bably he might have been less lucky on a 
stretch of country road. That he always 
found plenty of people willing to accom- 
pany him on these perilous excursions only 
shows what risks the impecunious Briton 
will face unflinchingly. At race-meetings, 
Mr. Schneider’s round, rosy face had latterly 
become observed by all observers, not so 
much on account of the animals that he 
owned, although he always had a few in 
training, as of the prodigious bets with which 
he alternately delighted and exasperated the 
bookmakers. 

That indolent cynic, Lord Guise, took 
him up, thinking that some amusement 
might be got out of him. Lord Guise 
valued London society about as much as 


FORTUNATE MR . SCHNEIDER 


47 


everybody values what is to be had for 
the asking. He knew, what many less 
highly -placed individuals have discovered, 
that this society is not composed of specially 
agreeable or talented or even well - bred 
units; and that, unlike that of most European 
capitals, its doors will always yield to the 
pressure of a golden key. He himself, there- 
fore, did not care to figure prominently at 
its gatherings ; but he was willing enough 
to fit' little Schneider’s golden latchkey into 
the lock for him. Few things tickled him 
more than to watch the dealings of nobly- 
born ladies with rich parvenus . The ladies, 
he had noticed, almost invariably have to 
swallow more dirt than the parvenus ; and 
if they make ugly faces over it, as they 
sometimes do, that is great fun. 

“ I think you said you didn’t know Lady 
Bel voir,” he remarked one day to his proUgd. 
“Would you like to know her?” 


48 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

This was very much the same thing as 
asking a struggling artist whether he would 
like to know the President of the Royal 
Academy, or a subaltern whether he would 
like to know the Commander-in-Chief; but 
Schneider, who had studied the manners 
of the best young men of the day, felt it 
incumbent upon him to dissemble his glee. 
He looked down at his boots, sighed wearily, 
and muttered something of which the word 
“ delighted ” was alone intelligible. 

“ Oh, not unless you wish,” said Lord 
Guise, laughing. “ I only thought that, as 
you are fond of going to parties, you might 
care to be invited to hers. Besides, she has 
personal merits. Somebody said of same 
woman or other that to know her was 
a liberal education. Well, it’s quite an 
education to know Sybil Belvoir ; though 
I don’t say that it’s quite the sort of 
education which I should select for my 


FORTUNATE MR. SCHNEIDER 


49 


son, if I were unfortunate enough to have 
a son/’ 

“ I dare say she won’t be able to tell 
me much that I don’t know,” observed Mr. 
Schneider, with a complacent smile. 

“ I suppose not,” assented Lord Guise, 
gravely. “ She sometimes makes me open 
my eyes ; but then I’m wonderfully innocent 
for my age. Well, then, I’ll introduce you to 
her at Paddington House to-night. By the 
way, are you going to Paddington House? 
Not had a card? Never mind; you can 
dine with me, and we’ll go on there together. 
That will be all right.” 

Schneider had much ado to keep him- 
self from jumping for joy. Hitherto he 
had derived little social advantage from his 
intimacy with Lord Guise ; but this was an 
offer of which he somewhat exaggerated the 
generosity and significance. The Duchess 
ot Paddington was a great lady, and the 


50 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


Duke was great ^ven among dukes : but 
perhaps they were a little too great to be 
exclusive. At any rate, when they threw 
open their magnificent ballroom, the crowd 
which poured into it was apt to contain quite 
as many nobodies as celebrities. There was 
not the least fear of their objecting to the 
entrance of any uninvited guest for whom 
Lord Guise might see fit to make him- 
self responsible. Not realising this, Mr. 
Schneider arrayed himself with more than 
usual care and joyfully accompanied his 
kind sponsor to the big house of which 
the outside is known to all Londoners, 
and the inside to not a few. His recep- 
tion was most gratifying, for the Duchess 
shook hands with him, and the Duke, he 
was flattered to find, knew quite well who 
he was. 

“Lve often seen you at Newmarket, Mr. 
Schneider,” said that good-natured magnate ; 


FORTUNATE MR. SCHNEIDER 


5i 


“ in fact, you are a racing man, I believe, 
are you not ? ” 

“ Oh, only in a very modest way,” 
answered Schneider, who was doubtful 
whether he ought not to say “ your Grace,” 
but decided that it would be safer to omit 
that ceremonious form of address. 

“H’m! I don’t know about modest; you’re 
the terror of the ring, they tell me. As for 
me, I’ve been racing all my life and never 
had a bet; but I’m exceptional, I suppose.” 

The Duke was exceptionally wealthy, 
and could therefore afford to race without 
betting ; but Schneider, not liking to remind 
him of that, merely observed that a race 
would hardly seem like a race unless one 
had something on it. 

“Ah, there it is,” returned the Duke; 
“you young fellows don’t care about sport 
for its own sake. Not one in ten of you 
can tell a good horse from a bad one, either.” 


£ 2 


52 


THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


One does not like to have such dreadful 
things as that said to one even by a duke, 
and of course they are all the more painful 
when they are said in a perfectly good-natured 
and matter-of-course way. Mr. Schneider, 
somewhat abashed, fell back and surveyed 
the company, amongst which he was quite 
sorry to recognise so many people whom he 
knew. It was satisfactory that they should 
see him at Paddington House ; but it was 
less satisfactory to see them there. He 
would much have preferred that they should 
be made aware of the high society to which 
he had been admitted by the newspapers 
on the following morning. 

Meanwhile, his interests were not being 
neglected by his introducer. Lord Guise 
Mouldered his way through the throng 
towards Lady Belvoir, whom he found 
dancing with his friend Eustace Moreton, 
and with whom he entered into conversation, 


FORTUNATE MR. SCHNEIDER 


53 


altogether disregarding the presence of her 
partner. 

“ What particular mischief are you up 
to now?’ he began by inquiring. “I suppose 
you never go to a ball without designs upon 
some poor beggar’s peace of mind, do you ? ” 

“I go to balls to dance,” answered Lady 
Belvoir; “ I thought you never went to balls 
at all. To what do we owe this unusual 
treat?” 

“ I suppose, if I said I came here to 
meet you, you would think I was telling 
a lie, wouldn’t you ? ” asked Lord Guise. 

“ No,” she answered ; “ I shouldn’t think 
so ; I should be sure of it. I often wonder 
why you dislike me so much, considering 
that I have never done you the smallest 
injury.” 

“It isn’t dislike; it’s fear. You are 
so irresistible, you know.” 

Lady Belvoir sighed, and allowed those 


54 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

large and rather melancholy eyes of hers 
to rest upon his face for a moment. Then 
she suddenly broke into a laugh. 

“ Don’t be alarmed,” she said. w How- 
ever irresistible I may be, you shall not 
be called upon to resist me. I don’t want 
to be rude ; but we are such old friends 
that I’m sure you won’t mind my saying 
how instinctively I shrink from ugly men. 
Not as friends, of course ; only I can’t 
tolerate them as admirers.” 

“Never?” asked Lord Guise, without 
wincing. “ I’m sorry for that, because I 
was rather thinking of introducing an ugly 
man to you to-night; and it goes without 
saying that he would have become an ad- 
mirer if you had consented to make his 
acquaintance.” 

“ I dare say I may consent,” Lady 
Belvoir answered. “ Who is he — and 
where is he — and why do you want to 


FORTUNATE MR. SCHNEIDER 


55 


introduce him to me ? Mr. Moreton, I 
see you are dying to get away ; don’t let 
me keep you any longer. Lord Guise will 
find a seat for me somewhere.” 

And when Moreton had acted upon this 
hint, and a vacant sofa had been discovered 
for her, she repeated her inquiries as to 
the ugly unknown. 

“ Upon second thoughts,” said Lord 
Guise, “ 1 am not sure that he is ugly — 
at least, not very. He is quite young, 
which is a beauty in itself ; and he has a 
round face and an empty head, and he 
employs a good tailor, and his name is 
Schneider. Is that categorical enough ? ” 

“ Oh, the little man who makes the big 
bets! He has any amount of shekels, hasn’t 
he?” 

“ Well, he has plenty of coins of some 
kind; but he isn’t a Jew, if that is what 
you mean — and if it matters. It was my 


56 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

good nature that made me think of pre- 
senting him to you. I know it would give 
him the most unfeigned delight to be placed 
on your visiting list ; and, taking him all 
round, he is quite as well-behaved as the 
generality of your intimates.” 

“ Go and fetch him,” answered Lady 
Belvoir. “ At least, he can’t be worse- 
behaved than you are.” 

“And most certainly he behaves better 
than you do, my dear Sybil. But that isn’t 
high praise.” 

“ I should have thought,” observed Lady 
Belvoir, quietly, “you might have found 
out by this time that I don’t consider your 
rude speeches in the least entertaining.” 

“ I have found it out, and it has always 
surprised me. If I were in your place, I 
should feel that they lent variety to life, 
and should quite enjoy them. But I suppose 
no wbman knows what it is to be satiated 


FORTUNATE MR. SCHNEIDER 


57 


with flattery. Now I will go and get my 
poor little Schneider, who will flatter you 
to the top of your bent, if you don’t frighten 
him.” 

Lady Belvoir had no intention of doing 
that. That she proposed to make a con- 
quest of the innocent Schneider was a 
matter of course. That was what she 
always proposed to do, and always did 
with each fresh male acquaintance. But 
in his case she was influenced by a half- 
formed ulterior motive. 

“ He might do,” she mused. # ‘ If he 
is really as rich as they say he is, he might 
possibly do.” 

The truth was that Lady Belvoir’s 
financial position was far from satisfactory. 
For some time past she had been living 
considerably beyond her income, and there 
were moments when she felt seriously 
alarmed about the future. At such moments 


58 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

she naturally contemplated putting herself 
up for sale ; so that she was prepared to 
give Mr. Schneider the chance of offering 
the very high price which she was entitled 
to demand. There are many different ways 
of being proud. Lady Belvoir’s pride of 
birth (she had no pride of any other kind) 
took the form of almost total indifference 
with regard to what is generally considered 
the important question of alliances. There 
was very little blood in England as good 
as hers ; and her view was that, if she 
had to stoop at all, she would incur no 
great additional obloquy by stooping as low 
as a Schneider. 

She was a woman of exceedingly quick 
perceptions, and before she had exchanged 
half-a-dozen words with the little man who 
addressed her with that kind of shyness 
which displays itself in an affectation of 
exaggerated ease, she knew exactly how to 


F0RTUNA1E MR. SCHNEIDER 


59 


treat him. She drew aside her dresj so 
as to make room for him in a corner of 
the sofa upon which she was seated. 

“Of course you don’t want to dance ?” 
she said. “ This is one of the few London 
rooms that are fit to dance in ; but to- 
night there is far too much of a squash. 
Are you coming to their little dance on 
the seventeenth ? ” 

“No, I don’t think so,” answered 
Schneider, hesitatingly ; for, indeed, he 
feared that he would have the best of all 
reasons for being absent from that enter- 
tainment. 

“ Not good enough ? Well, I must say 
I think it is rather too bad of you all. Your 
idea seems to be that society is bound to 
provide amusement for you, and yet you 
won’t make the smallest sacrifice for the 
benefit of society. If the smart young men 
refuse to dance, balls can’t be given.” 


60 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

“ Oh, I don’t refuse to dance ; only 
sometimes it’s pleasanter to sit still and 
talk— don’t you think so?” said Schneider, 
immensely delighted at being called a smart 
young man. 

“Yes, but duty is very seldom pleasant; 
and you have duties, though you decline 
to recognise them. However, I won’t make 
you dance this evening. What an unfortu- 
nate business this is about the Duchess, 
isn’t it ? ” 

Schneider, not having the faintest idea 
what duchess was alluded to, or what the 
unfortunate business was, wagged his head 
and looked solemn. 

“ Of course,” Lady Belvoir went on, 
“you think she has only herself to blame. 
That is what men always think ; but it is 
very unfair and very untrue. The fact is 
that you scarcely ever hear the truth. Take 
the case of Lady , for instance. I 


FORTUNATE MR. SCHNEIDER 61 


know you won’t allow that there can be 
any excuse for her, and I admit that she 
has made a fool of herself ; yet, in reality, 
she has been a great deal more sinned 
against than sinning.” 

She went on for some time in this way, 
discussing the frailties of high personages, 
and the scandals connected with their names. 
Schneider did not know at all what she 
was talking about ; but he was beyond 
measure pleased by her taking it for granted 
that he was conversant with all the tittle- 
tattle of her set, and he did not disclaim 
the severely critical attitude with which she 
chose to credit him. 

“ Reauy,” she said at length, “ we are 
not so black as we are painted. Why 
won’t you,” she continued, in almost plead- 
ing accents, “ try to judge of us for yourself, 
instead of believing all you hear about 
us ? ” 


62 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

u But I assure you I don’t believe all 
I hear,” protested Schneider, eagerly, and 
he thought he might venture to add : “ At 
any rate, I shan’t believe what I hear about 
you in future, Lady Belvoir.” 

“ Oh, you don’t expect to hear much 
good, then,” she returned, laughing. “You 
haven’t heard any from Lord Guise, at all 
events; I’m quite sure of that.” 

As an honest and ingenuous man, 
Schneider felt quite unable to say that he 
had ; but he remarked with engaging grace- 
fulness that he should always be deeply 
indebted to Lord Guise for the introduction 
with which he had been honoured that 
evening, and he joyfully accepted Lady 
Belvoir’s invitation to call upon her any 
Sunday afternoon when he had nothing 
better to do. 

This simple tale is only in part concerned 
with the subjugation of Schneider, which, 


FORTUNATE MR. SCHNEIDER 63 


from that moment, was a foregone con- 
clusion, and of which the details were 
perhaps more amusing to Lady Belvoir 
than they vrould be to the general reader. 
Of course he called upon her, and of course 
he dined with her when she asked him, 
and equally of course he became her abject 
slave. She had succeeded with much more 
recalcitrant victims than he, and what the 
secret of her success was the present 
narrator would never divulge, if he knew it, 
because the promulgation of such secrets 
cannot tend to the public advantage. To 
Dorothy Leslie, who thought Mr. Schneider 
vulgar, familiar, and generally objectionable, 
Lady Belvoir would vouchsafe to say neither 
how nor why she had added his scalp to 
her previous trophies. 

“ You are a great deal too particular,” 
she declared. “If one only made oneself 
agreeable to nice men, one would live hi 


64 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

a desert. Poor little Schneider is no worse 
than his neighbours.” 

“ I should have thought that he was 
a great deal worse than some of them,” 
Dorothy would reply, and indeed she could 
never be induced to show ordinary courtesy 
to this unfortunate gentleman, who, for his 
part, did his best to conciliate her. 

“ I can’t make that girl out,” Schneider 
complained one day to Eustace Moreton, 
whom he occasionally met in Carlton House 
Terrace. “ She comes down upon me like 
a sack of coals every time that I open my 
lips, and if I meet her out anywhere, she 
won’t see me. Who is she to give herself 
such airs, I wonder ? ” 

Mr. Moreton didn’t know, and might add 
that he didn’t care. He agreed, however, 
that she had a very disagreeable manner. 
“ She seems to make a point of being rude 
to Lady Belvoir’s friends,” he observed. 


FORTUNATE MR. SCHNEIDER 65 

Miss Leslie, it is true, was apt to lose 
patience with those whom Lady Belvoir 
treated as friends, as well as with Lady 
Belvoir herself for so treating them ; and 
this impatience of hers was a source of 
much amusement to the more experienced 
woman. 

“ You pay me a poor compliment by 
calling them fortune-hunters,” the latter 
would say. “ I believe them, on the con- 
trary, to be sincere and disinterested lovers 
— and I ought to know.” 

Whatever they may have been, she took 
an immensity of pains to keep them in a 
state of servitude and good humour, and, 
considering how numerous they were, it was 
no small proof of her ability that she 
managed to prevent their visits from clash- 
ing. As for Schneider, notwithstanding 
his natural modesty, the conviction forced 
itself upon him that a beautiful, wealthy, 

r 


66 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

and nobly-born lady was in a fair way to 
become enamoured of him. No wonder the 
poor little man lost his head, and during 
the greater part of his waking hours hardly 
knew whether he was standing upon it or 
upon his heels. 


CHAPTER IV. 


THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF PERCY TPIOROLD 

N our country, and in the times in 
which we live, those who aspire to 
the position of rising young states- 
men have not much leisure to devote to the 
realisation of other ideals while the session 
lasts, and Percy Thorold often congratu- 
lated himself that he had no other ideals 
to realise. Of the pleasures of society — 
supposing, for the sake of argument, that 
society has any pleasures — he had made a 
more or less public renunciation ; so that 
he now considered himself absolved from 
even answering invitations which his duties 
rendered it impossible to accept. One must, 
however, dine sometimes with official persons ; 



68 THE BAFFLED CONSF1RATORS 

and it was at the house of an official person 
that he was introduced to a middle-aged 
lady of benevolent aspect, whom he was 
requested to escort to the dining-room. 
That this lady’s name chanced to be Leslie, 
did not at first cause him to connect her with 
the girl whom he had met at Lady Belvoir’s, 
and with whom he had been so favourably 
impressed ; but after he had been sitting 
beside her for five or ten minutes and had 
made such conversation as can be made for 
the benefit of unknown middle-aged ladies, 
his flagging attention was aroused by her 
revealing her identity. 

“ My daughter told me that she had had 
the pleasure of making your acquaintance a 
short time ago through her friend Lady 
Belvoir,” said she. “ Lady Belvoir now 
lives near us in the country, and my 
daughter has become very intimate with 
her of late. I am not quite sure,” she 


THOROLD'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS 69 

added, hesitatingly, “ whether I am right 
in allowing Dorothy to see so much of 
her.” 

The naivetd of this unspoken query 
rather tickled Percy. “ Lady Belvoir is 
my cousin,” he remarked, smiling. 

“ Oh, yes ; I know that, and I didn’t 
mean to say anything at all against her. 
Still, one may have cousins who are charm- 
ing in a great many ways, and yet not 
exactly the best companions for young girls. 
Dorothy is altogether inexperienced, and as 
for me, I know nothing of the fashionable 
world nowadays. It is ages since I spent 
a season in London. Formerly,” continued 
Mrs. Leslie, with a sigh, “ if one had one or 
two good introductions, that was sufficient ; 
but now everything seems to be so changed. 
A few old friends have been kind to us and 
have asked us out ; only I can’t help noticing 
that one meets some very odd people at 


7 o THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

their houses — people whom one certainly 
wouldn’t have met in my fathers time.” 

“I really think you would have met Lady 
Belvoir in anybody’s time,” answered Percy. 
“ I won’t answer for it that you would have 
approved of her, because that is a question 
of personal taste and opinion ; but I am 
sure that your friends would have asked 
her to dinner. And may I venture to say 
that, if you wanted to shield your daughter 
from any danger of evil communications, 
you shouldn’t have brought her to London 
at all?” 

“ Oh, but one must ! ” Mrs. Leslie 
returned. “ One wouldn’t be justified in 
locking one’s children up, even if it were 
possible to do so. Besides, Dorothy has 
principles which ought to be a sufficient 
protection to her.” 

“ Exactly so. That is why I hope that 
she will get no harm from my cousin.” 


THOROLD'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS 71 

Mrs. Leslie, who had heard all about 
the engagement which had recently come 
to an end, thought this very magnanimous 
— and so, perhaps, it was ; because if Percy 
Thorold had said what he really thought of 
his cousin, he would have had to say that 
he considered her heartless, selfish, deceitful, 
and vain. Not wishing to commit himself 
to so candid an expression of opinion, he 
shifted the subject a little and led Mrs. 
Leslie on to tell him more about her 
daughter. This is a subject upon which 
the generality of mothers are willing enough 
to converse ; so that before the evening 
was over Percy had learnt a good deal 
which increased his original interest in the 
debutante. Having, as he believed, had 
his day, and being now a mere spectator 
of life in a social sense, he naturally felt 
interested in those who were about to take 
their turn at the game. 


72 


THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


It is a pity that Mrs. Leslie knew so 
little about the stress of modem political 
life ; otherwise she would doubtless have 
been more flattered than she was by the 
request of this overworked legislator that 
he might be permitted to call upon her. 
On the following Wednesday afternoon he 
made his appearance at the little house in 
Ebury Street which she had taken for the 
season, and not only found Mrs. and Miss 
Leslie at home, but landed in the middle 
of a tea-party, which was perhaps rather 
more than he had bargained for. However, 
there were not a great many people present, 
and the tea-table, over which Miss Leslie 
was presiding, was in the back drawing- 
room ; so that, if he wished to talk to 
that young lady rather than to her mother, 
he had no reason to grumble at his luck. 

“And does a London season come up 
to your expectations ? w was the first thing 


Til OK OLD’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS 73 

that he asked her, putting his question with 
an amiable, grandfatherly air. “ I suppose 
you have been racketing about to a tre- 
mendous extent/’ 

“Not to what you would call a tre- 
mendous extent,” she answered. “We 
have been to very few balls, and those 
were rather disappointing, except as a spec- 
tacle. I have enjoyed the theatres and 
concerts, though ; and I hope to enjoy a 
good many more before we return to our 
native obscurity.” 

“ Ah, I wish I had time to go to con- 
certs ! ” sighed Percy. “ Music is about 
my only real pleasure now.” 

The girl glanced at him with a slight 
suspicion of irony in her smile ; but, bear- 
ing in mind how lately he had been crossed 
in love, she felt that he was entitled to 
be a little lackadaisical, and only said . 

“ What about politics ? ” 


74 


THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


“ W ell, they don’t come under the head 
of pleasures, at all events. I gave you 
my views of political life the last time that 
I had the honour of meeting you, if you 
remember.” 

“ Yes ; and I remember that I made 
so bold as to tell you that I didn’t believe 
in their sincerity. It is generally easy 
enough to tell whether people mean what 
they are saying or not.” 

“ Is it, indeed ? If I found it so, political 
life would be very much simplified in my 
case. I should like to take you to the 
House of Commons some time when one 
of half-a dozen Members whom I could 
name is on his legs. Then, if you could 
tell me whether he meant what he was 
saying or not, you would do me a truly 
invaluable service.” 

“ Oh, if they were clever and dishonest 
men, I dare say they would puzzle 


me. 


THOR OLD'S ACCOMPLISHMENT'S 75 

But you are not — I mean you are not 
dishonest/’ 

Mr. Thorold bowed gravely. 

“ I want so much to hear a debate,” 
the girl went on presently. “ Is that a 
very difficult thing to manage ? ” 

“ Not so difficult but that I dare say 
I could manage it for you by making an 
effort. Whom do you particularly wish to 
hear?” 

“Would you be horrified if I said that 
I would rather hear Mr. Gladstone than 
anybody else ? ” 

“ Not in the least. I also would rather 
listen to him than to anybody else. That 
doesn’t compel me to agree with him.” 

“ And, next to Mr. Gladstone, I should 
like to hear you.” 

“ Thank you. I don’t shrink from the 
comparison, because none will be drawn. 
Nobody has ever dreamt of calling me a 


76 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


brilliant speaker ; all that can be said for 
me is that I am accurate and cool-headed 
“ But those are two very important 
things, are they not ? ” 

“ They tell more or less in the House ; 
they aren’t of much use upon the platform. 
Well, you shall have an opportunity of 
hearing us both, and then you will be able 
to judge to some extent which style of 
oratory is likely to be the most serviceable 
under a system of party government. I 
suppose Mrs. Leslie will accompany you ? ” 
“Yes, please; though I’m afraid she 
won’t enjoy it. I asked Lady Belvoir to 
take me ; but she said she would as soon 
listen to a two hours’ sermon.” 

“Your mother,” observed Percy, “has 
been asking me whether I considered Lady 
Belvoir a desirable sort of friend for you.” 
“ And what did you say ? ” 

“ I didn’t say much ; perhaps I am not 


THOROLD'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS 77 

a very good judge. I should be sorry if 
you were to adopt Lady Belvoir’s standard 
of conduct ; only I am quite sure that you 
won’t.” 

“ Are you quite sure that you know 
what her standard of conduct is ? ” 

“ Oh, dear, no ; I don’t even know that 
she has one. However, I know how she 
conducts herself.” 

So, for the matter of that, did Dorothy 
Leslie ; but she was a loyal friend, and 
she would doubtless have found something 
plausible to urge on Lady Belvoir’s behalf, 
had she not been interrupted by the entrance 
of fresh visitors. These were all of them 
young men, and, after the manner of their 
kind, they made short work of the mistress 
of the house, with whom they shook hands 
and whom they promptly deserted in favour 
of her daughter. Thus Percy Thorold 
found himself relegated to the background 


78 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

— a position which has its theoretical 
advantages and its practical drawbacks. 
He left the house almost immediately, and 
as he walked away he was conscious of a 
certain feeling of irritation against those 
well-dressed and self-satisfied youths for 
which he was at a loss to account. What 
in the world did the cut of their clothes 
or their satisfaction therewith signify to 
him ? Surely he could not be so ridiculous 
as to be jealous of them ! Nevertheless, 
that is precisely what he was, and probably 
it was some inkling of the truth that caused 
him to say to himself in a very determined 
manner: “No, thank you! I’ve burnt my 
fingers once/’ 

But of course it does not follow that 
because you have quite made up your mind 
not to be so silly as to fall in love with a 
gir much younger than yourself (who, in 
any case, would be most unlikely to look 


THOROLD'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS 79 

twice at you), you are therefore to be rude 
to her and ignore her innocent requests. 
Consequently, it was but a few days after 
this that Mrs. and Miss Leslie were enabled 
to look down upon the heads of those who 
are supposed to represent the concentrated 
wisdom of the nation, and heard a harangue 
from the leader of the Opposition which 
one of them thought magnificent. Mrs. 
Leslie,, whose political opinions were of the 
true-blue order, remained unmoved by it. 
No amount of eloquence can make black 
white, and Demosthenes himself could not 
have persuaded her that it would be right 
to concede Home Rule to Ireland. It must 
be admitted that she knew nothing what- 
soever of the arguments for or against that 
measure ; but in this she only resembled 
the overwhelming majority of her fellow- 
countrymen ; and really, if one had to be 
perpetually giving reasons for the beliefs 


8o THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


which one holds, there would be no time 
left to devote to the daily duties of life. 

Dorothy, on the other hand, was open 
to conviction, and it was Mr. Thorold’s 
privilege to convince her. He did not at 
once follow the great man. That task was 
undertaken by a more important personage ; 
and, truth to tell, the important personage 
made rather a mess of it. Other speakers 
on both sides of the House said what they 
had to say, without producing much im- 
pression, one way or the other, upon the 
critic in the Ladies’ Gallery ; but very soon 
after Percy Thorold rose, she became aware 
that she was listening to a man whose words 
were worthy of attention. His description 
of himself as an orator had certainly been 
too modest. Brilliant he was not ; but he 
was fluent, he was refreshingly lucid, he 
could prove his facts, and such points as 
he made were indisputable. He was fre 


THOROLD'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS 8 


quently interrupted, and this did not disturb 
him at all. He had a way o s waiting 
until the noise subsided and then calmly 
finishing his sentence which seemed to have 
a peculiarly exasperating effect upon his 
opponents. His speech, which was not a 
very long one, seemed to Dorothy almost, 
if not altogether, conclusive, and to its cool 
logic and unimpassioned exposure of mis- 
statements and fallacies she was inclined 
to attribute the substantial majority obtained 
by the Government. This may have been, 
and probably was, an error on her part ; 
but it matters little enough whether she 
was right or wrong. What is really im- 
portant, as regards this narrative, is that 
from that moment she conceived a sincere 
respect and admiration for one who may 
be called its hero, so far as it has a hero. 

She had no immediate opportunity of 
letting him know how highly she thought 


82 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

of his abilities as a debater, nor did she 
see or hear anything more of him for another 
ten days; but one morning, when she was 
riding in the Park with Lady Belvoir, who 
had good-naturedly given her a mount, she 
was glad to recognise Mr. Thorold among 
the other equestrians, and still more glad 
when he turned his horse round and joined 
them. Lady Belvoir being, as usual, sur- 
rounded by admirers; it naturally fell to 
Percy’s lot to escort Miss Leslie, who had 
a little the appearance of having been 
shouldered aside by the throng. 

“ I liked your speech better than Mr. 
Gladstone’s,” she said at once, without any 
preface. 

He looked very much surprised, but 
at the same time gratified. “ Oh — but Pm 
afraid that’s impossible,” he answered. 

“ It can’t be impossible, because it is 
the fact. I admit that he carried me away 


THOR OLD'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS 83 

for the time, but he didn’t enlighten me 
in the least, whereas you did. And I 
prefer being enlightened to being carried 
away.” 

“ Then you must be very unlike the 
generality of your sex,” remarked Percy. 
“ And indeed,” he added, presently, “ I 
think that in many ways you are.” 

This sounded a doubtful sort of com- 
pliment to pay in return for the handsome 
one which he had received, and it probably 
occurred to him that his words were open 
to misconstruction, for he hastened to 
explain that if Miss Leslie differed from 
the generality of women, that was only 
because she was apparently free from their 
defects. “ The truth is, that I am something 
of a woman-hater,” he said, laughing. 

This avowal did not astonish Dorothy, 
who was aware that he had reasons for 
being what nobody whose mind is in a 


G 2 


84 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

perfectly healthy state ought to be. As, 
however, she could think of no consolatory 
rejoinder, she held her peace >; and, before 
either of them could speak again, her 
attention was fully taken up by other and 
more pressing matters. The horse that she 
was riding was fresh, and perhaps rather 
too high-couraged for a lady who was not 
(as Lady Belvoir was) a finished horse- 
woman. Somebody cantering briskly past, 
caused him to break into a gallop, and 
Dorothy perceived that the situation was 
rapidly becoming critical. 

Thorold saw it too, for he exclaimed : 
“Take care! Don’t let him get out of 
your hand.” 

“He is out of my hand already,” 
answered the girl, a little breathlessly ; “ I 
can’t hold him.” 

Of all disagreeable places in which to 
be bolted with, Rotten Row is the most 


THOROLD'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS 85 

disagreeable. You are very likely to get 
killed ; you are not at all unlikely to kill 
somebody else ; and, in any case, you are 
quite certain to incur universal censure for 
having allowed such a thing to happen to 
you. Fortunately for Dorothy Leslie, she 
was preserved on this occasion from breaking 
her own neck or from scattering death and 
destruction around her ; and, fortunately for 
Percy Thorold, he was the instrument of 
her preservation. There is not much use 
in catching hold of the bridle of a runaway 
horse ; but a strong arm may be of service 
when he has almost but not quite run 
away, and Percy was just in time to 
avert a catastrophe. However, he and his 
companion had galloped nearly as far as 
Kensington Gardens before they came to 
a standstill, and Lady Belvoir, who, as a 
matter of fact, was unaware of what had 
occurred, was nowhere to be seen. Dorothy 


86 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

was for riding back and joining her ; but 
to this Mr. Thorold would not consent. 

“ You must let me take you home,” he 
said; “ that horse is really a little bit too 
much for you. He won’t break away with 
you in the streets ; but I wouldn’t answer 
for him here, and it isn’t worth while to 
run risks.” 

“ But won’t Lady Belvoir be anxious ? ” 
suggested Dorothy, doubtfully. 

“ Well, no,” he replied, with a slight 
smile, “ I don’t think so. She isn’t a very 
anxious sort of person, you know ; she will 
be sure to think that it is all right.” 

So Dorothy allowed him to escort 
her to Carlton House Terrace, and he 
complimented her upon the nerve which 
she had shown, and she thanked him for 
his timely aid, and in the course of the 
next twenty minutes a greater degree of 
intimacy sprang up between them than 


THOROLD'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS 87 

would have been likely to result from as 
many chance meetings under more ordinary 
circumstances. They reached their destina- 
tion without further mishap, and Dorothy 
had hardly dismounted when Lady Belvoir 
clattered up, attended by Eustace Moreton. 

Lady Belvoir, as had been foreseen, had 
been disturbed by no anxiety about her 
charge. She laughed and remarked : “ I 
thought we should find you here. I hope 
you have enjoyed your ride, both of you.” 

Dorothy gave a brief account of what 
had happened, which was listened to with 
some amusement, and even with a touch 
of apparent scepticism ; but Percy thought 
it right to take his cousin aside for a moment 
and point out to her that it is really neither 
wise nor safe to assume that any girl can 
manage any horse. Such carelessness may 
have consequences for which no subsequent 


remorse can atone. 


88 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

“ Oh, my dear Percy,” exclaimed Lady 
Belvoir, “ how I should have detested you 
if I had married you! You have a gentle, 
temperate style of reproaching one for one’s 
sins which reminds me of nothing so much 
as my first governess, who always used to 
assure me it gave her far more pain to 
box my ears than it could give me to have 
them boxed. However, 1 don’t detest you 
now ; 1 really quite like you. And Dorothy 
shan’t ride that horse any more ; and by 
giving reasonable notice you may count 
upon always meeting her here when you 
do me the honour to call. Will you stay 
and lunch now ? ” 

Percy declined this invitation, pleading 
the pressure of official duties ; but the mere 
fact of its having been given sufficed to 
modify his views with regard to the sex 
of which he had so lately proclaimed himself 
a hater. Hence it may be inferred that 


THOROLD'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS 89 


the love for Sybil Belvoir, which during 
many years had been an essential part of 
his existence, was now finally dead and 
buried. 


CHAPTER V. 


USELESS EUSTACE 

ADY BELVOIR, like the generality 
of perfectly selfish people, was good- 
natured. So long as she got what 
she wanted, she was very willing that others 
also should get what they wanted. Indeed, 
she much preferred their doing so, because it 
is pleasanter to associate with contented than 
with discontented mortals. As for Percy 
Thorold, he was, perhaps, of all her captives 
the one of whom she was the least proud 
and whose allegiance she was the least 
anxious to retain. For one thing, he had 
wearied her to death ; for another, she was 
quite well aware that he had been in love, 
not with her, but with a girl of her name 



USELESS EUSTACE 


9 l 


who had long since ceased to exist ; finally, 
he had never lor a moment succeeded in 
touching her heart. Consequently, her 
feeling towards him was one of simple 
friendliness, and as she knew him to be 
an excellent man in all respects (except 
those which she cared for), she was honestly 
pleased to discover that he was smitten with 
the only girl in the world whom she had 
ever found tolerable as a companion. She 
found various means of bringing them to- 
gether, and amused herself, when she had 
nothing better to do, by watching the 
progress of their mutual relations. They 
were obviously falling in love with one 
another, but were just as obviously uncon- 
scious of it, so that their satisfaction in 
meetings which they had never arranged 
and their ill-concealed disappointment when, 
as sometimes happened, those meetings failed 
to come off, formed a pretty and refreshing 


92 


THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


little idyll for a disenchanted woman of the 
world to contemplate at spare moments. 

Lady Belvoir’s spare moments, to be 
sure, were not numerous, for she had many 
irons in the fire, and these naturally required 
pretty constant attention; still she was not so 
self-engrossed but that she could occasionally 
devote a little time to the interests of an old 
and valued friend, and it is certain that at 
this period Percy Thorold’s opinion of her 
underwent a marked change for the better. 
As the spring and summer went on, and as 
his engagement to and rupture with his 
cousin passed into the category of ancient 
history, he became a more and more frequent 
visitor in Carlton Plouse Terrace. He was 
still by way of shunning the gay world, 
but perhaps his reasons for so doing were no 
longer the same as they had been earlier in 
the year. It is only quite young and quite 
old men who go into society for society's 


USELESS EUSTACE 


93 


sake : the others submit to it in order to 
meet somebody; and if that individual can be 
met just as easily and far more comfortably 
at afternoon tea, why should a busy politician 
neglect public affairs for the chance of a few 
hurried words in a crowded ball-room ? 

But, of course, busy politicians cannot 
always count upon being free between five 
and six o’clock, and that is why Percy was 
unable to put in an appearance at Lady 
Belvoir’s one afternoon, although he had 
previously given Miss Leslie to understand 
that he would be there. 

“ My dear girl,” Lady Belvoir said, when 
her friend entered, “ I am delighted to see 
you, but I’m afraid you won’t see anybody 
except me to-day. I did ask Percy to 
look in, but I have just had a note from 
him to say that he is bound to be at West- 
minster.” 

“ But really I don’t want to see anybody 


94 


THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


except you/’ Dorothy replied, with pardon* 
able mendacity. 

“Oh, well, if you are sure of that” — Lady 
Belvoir paused for a moment and laughed — 
“ if you are sure of that,” she resumed, 
presently, “ I’ll ring and order tea. All 
things considered, I don’t know that I 
particularly care about seeing anybody except 
you, so I won’t send you away.” 

These two women, who had so little in 
common, had by this time at any rate a 
considerable number of common acquaint- 
ances, and upon these their conversation not 
unnaturally turned. Thus justice, without 
very much mercy, was done to many persons 
who, by reason of the narrowness of the 
present stage, have not been introduced to 
the reader, as well as to one or two who 
have. Mr. Schneider, for example, if he had 
been concealed behind one of the numerous 
screens which adorned the room, would have 


USELESS EUSTACE 


95 


been forced to listen to certain truths about 
himself which could hardly have failed to 
make him unhappy, although he might have 
been to some extent consoled by hearing 
Lady Bel voir take his part. 

“ I don’t know why you are always so 
hard upon my .poor little Schneider,” she 
said. “ He isn’t clever, of course ; but one 
can’t expect everybody to be clever.” 

“ No — only I don’t think he is a gentle 
man,” Dorothy replied. 

“ Has any one ever had the effrontery to 
assert that he was ? What do you mean by 
a gentleman ? I mean a person entitled to 
use coat-armour, and I don’t see what all the 
other elaborate definitions that one hears 
have to do with the subject. Schneider has 
just about as many ancestors, I suppose— a 
few more or a few less — as half the men 
whom I receive.” 

“ Very likely ; but . was thinking of his 


96 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

manners rather than of his birth ; and as for 
half the men whom you receive, I never can 
understand why you receive them.” 

The truth was that Dorothy could not 
enter into the good-humoured disdain with 
which Lady Belvoir regarded her suitors, 
one and all ; and as, rightly or wrongly, she 
thought better of her friend than most people 
thought, it provoked her to see the en- 
couragement freely accorded to persons who 
had no right at all to expect anything of the 
kind. One of these was announced before 
Lady Belvoir had time to reply, and at the 
sound of his name Miss Leslie made a 
grimace. Mr. Eustace Moreton was probably 
entitled to the use of coat-armour, but that 
did not alter the fact that he was lazy, 
selfish and inefficient. 

Now, if Dorothy disliked this young 
gentleman — as she did very cordially — he 
had no great fancy or admiration for her, and 


USELESS EUSTACE 


97 


although he cPd not o'o so far as to make a 
face at her, he allowed it to be plainly seen 
that he was both surprised and displeased to 
find her in the room. What business had he 
to be either the one or the other ? That 
was what Dorothy wondered, and what Lady 
Belvoir could have told her. 

But Lady Belvoir only laughed a little, as 
though tickled by some thought of her own, 
and said to the new comer : 

“You have arrived just in time to stand 
up for yourself. Miss Leslie has been telling 
me that she can’t understand why I admit 
half the men who come here. Does that 
include you, do you suppose ; or do you 
belong to the other half?” 

Moreton had the manners of the modern 
young man, which, with all due respect to 
the modern young man, is tantamount to 
saving that his manners might have been 
more refined and urbane without any detri- 


H 


qS THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


ment to his general attractiveness. He 
sank into a low chair, felt for the moustache 
which he had recently sacrificed, and allowed 
some seconds to elapse before he answered : 

“I don’t know, I’m sure, but I should 
have thought Miss Leslie might as well have 
condemned the whole of us while she was at 
it. It’s very evident that we haven’t had 
the good luck to please her, but perhaps 
that is because we haven’t tried as hard as 
we ought to have done.” 

At this Lady Belvoir laughed again. 
“ Suppose you begin now?” she suggested. 
“ I shall be happy to retire to the other end 
of the room, if you think you would get on 
better without me.” 

“ I don’t think we should get on at all 
better without you,” answered Dorothy and 
Moreton in one breath. 

It was a oity that, after so emphatic a 
concurrence of opinion, they should have 


USELESS EUSTACE 


99 


been forced to do without her; but at this 
moment two other visitors made their ap- 
pearance, and so it came to pass that 
Dorothy and Mr. Moreton, being left sitting 
side by side, had to entertain one another, 
whether they liked it or not. Neither of 
them liked it at all, and Dorothy did not 
even make an effort to do her duty, so that 
it devolved upon her neighbour to open the 
proceedings. This he did by observing in a 
somewhat aggrieved tone : 

“ I didn’t know that Lady Bel voir had a 
tea-fight on this afternoon.” 

“ I don’t think she expected anybody to 
come,” answered Dorothy, coldly. ‘ Not 
even you, perhaps.” 

“H’m! If it isn’t an impertinent question, 
may I ask whether she expected you ? ” 

Impertinent or not, he obtained no answer 
to it ; but presently Dorothy observed : “ I 
wonder at your not liking tea-parties.” 


H 2 


ioo THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

“ Do I,” inquired Moreton, more in 
sorrow than in anger, “ look like a man 
who enjoys tea-parties ? ” 

“ Yes, I think so,” replied the girl, im- 
perturbably. “ Besides, if you don’t enjoy 
tea-parties, what do you enjoy ? ” 

Moreton very seldom lost his temper, but 
then it was not often that he was tried in this 
way. He was now thoroughly angry, and if 
Dorothy had been a man she would doubtless 
have been requested in a peremptory manner 
to explain her words. As it was, he only 
remarked, with studied calmness : 

“ I suppose that means that you look 
upon me as a very effeminate sort of person 
I am sorry for that ; but I don’t think I’ll try 
to alter your opinion.” 

“ I don’t think you could,” returned his 
implacable antagonist. 

The young man stared at her in undis- 
guised astonishment, 


USELESS EUSTACE 


IOI 


" I know you don’t like me, Miss Leslie,” 
said he, “ and, if you’ll excuse my speaking 
the truth, I don’t very much care. But, as 
a simple matter of curiosity, may I ask you 
what your quarrel with me is ? ” 

“ Yes,” she replied, “ you may, and I will 
tell you. My quarrel with you is that you 
are good for nothing. I may be wrong, but 
it always seems to me that a good-for-nothing 
man is ten times worse than a good-for- 
nothing woman. It is sufficient for a woman 
to be something — pretty, for instance — but a 
man ought to be able to do something. If 
he can’t, he might as well never have been 
born.” 

“ Oh, but I can do several things," Mr, 
Moreton replied, composedly. “I can dance 
very well, and I can shoot rather better than 
pretty well, and — let me see, is there any- 
thing else i Oh, yes ; I forgot my chief 
accomplishment. I am a really first-rate 


io2 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

hand at ingratiating myself with ladies. Not 
with you, of course ; but you are the excep- 
tion that proves the rule.” 

If he meant to be exasperating, he 
scored a success, for Dorothy jerked up her 
shoulders, without deigning to respond, and 
after that he could get no more out of her. 
That she had not revealed the true cause of 
her hostility to him, he could hardly be ex- 
pected to divine. How could he know that 
she suspected him of an ambition to acquire 
Lady' Belvoir’s fortune, and that she was 
convinced that Lady Belvoir, minus her 
fortune, would have had no sort of fascination 
for him? As little could she guess what was 
in reality the sad plight of this hardened 
student of feminine nature. For Eustace 
Moreton Lady Belvoirs reputation had no 
secrets ; he knew all that was said about her, 
and believed most of it. Yet it was now 
nearly a month since he had become as wax; 


USELESS EUSTACE 


103 


in Lady Belvoir’s hands. That all-powerful 
woman had turned her attention to him the 
moment that she discovered how lightly he 
valued it, and such feeble resistance as he had 
offered had been overcome with ridiculous 
ease. It may be conceded that Eustace 
Moreton was a selfish man ; but it is 
certain that the persistency with which he 
had followed Lady Belvoir about of late 
was not due to any wish on his part to 
make what is usually called a good marriage. 
He called himself an ass for acting as he 
did, and he knew that he was an ass ; but 
he did it, all the same. 

Dorothy, for the reasons which have 
already been mentioned, determined to sit 
him out upon this occasion, and it need 
scarcely be added that she attained her 
purpose. He stayed until the other people 
had gone away ; after which he glanced 
appealingly at Lady Belvoir and impatiently 


104 THE baffled conspirators 

at Dorothy ; but as neither of them chose 
to understand what he wanted, he resigned 
himself to the inevitable and took his 
leave. 

“ Poor fellow ! ” laughed Lady Belvoir, 
when she and her friend were once more 
alone. 

“He is indeed!” agreed Dorothy, with 
fervour. “ I don’t think I ever in my life 
met with a poorer fellow.” 

“ Oh, I have,” said Lady Belvoir, throw- 
ing herself back in her chair and fanning 
herself lazily ; “ I have met with lots of 
poorer creatures. If you come to that, 
Schneider is a poorer creature. The 
mistake you make, my dear girl, is in 
asking too much of human nature. I am 
far more reasonable. The first thing that 
I ask of a man is that he should adore me ; 
then I expect him to keep his temper with 
me ; finally, I should like him, if he can 


USELESS EUSTACE 


IO S 

manage it, to amuse me. But I don’t insist 
upon that.” 

“ And does Mr. Useless Mortal fulfil all 
those conditions ? ” inquired Dorothy, scorn- 
fully.- 

“ Mr. Useless Mortal, as you so wittily 
call him — by the way, Dorothy, I wouldn’t 
display wit if I were you ; it isn’t a popular 
quality — is all that I could wish him to 
be. He behaved admirably this afternoon ; 
because I did tell him that I should be 
at home and alone, and of course he must 
have thought that I had purposely misled 
him. When I think of the fuss that Percy 
Thorold used to make when these unavoid- 
able accidents occurred ! ” 

u Mr. Thorold was engaged to you,” 
observed Dorothy, reddening a little, though 
there was no ostensible cause for her doing 
so. 

“Yes, lor a time he was; but he fussed 


io6 THE BATTLED CONSPIRATORS 


long before he was engaged. Mr. Moreton, 
I am sure, would never be fussy and never 
try to interfere with one’s arrangements. 
A pleasanter man to marry I can’t imagine, 
and I really quite regret that it is impossible 
for me to marry him.” 

“ I am delighted to hear you say so,” 
Dorothy declared. 

“ Thanks very much. Would you prefer 
my marrying your friend Schneider, then ? ” 

“ Of the two, I think I should,” answered 
Dorothy. “ Mr. Schneider, at least, is rich 
enough to be disinterested.” 

“You almost make me wish to convince 
you that the other is disinterested too. 
But perhaps it wouldn’t be worth while. 
Taking everything into consideration, I 
think I will leave matrimony to you, my 
dear. You are better fitted for domestic 
'joys than I am, and Percy oh, I beg 
your pardon ; I didn’t mean to say that.” 


USELESS EUSTACE 


107 


“ I don’t know what you were going to 
say,” declared Dorothy, with a good deal 
of dignity. 

“ Of course you don’t. Well, I was 
only going to say that Percy also is fitted 
for domestic joys. Possibly he may have 
told you so himself by this time." 


CHAPTER VI. 


THREE UNFORTUNATES 



r- v j O be a convinced pessimist it is 

before all things necessary to 
have reached middle age and to 
suffer from a disordered liver. Deprived 
of these two essentials, a man will be very 
apt to find nature too strong for him and 
to form a more flattering opinion of this 
world and its inhabitants than perhaps he 
ought to form. An unfortunate love affair 
is all very well so long as the soreness 
lasts ; but this invariably wears off sooner 
or later, and then a reaction takes place 
in the minds of the young and healthy 
which cannot but prove fatal to their wisdom 
and philosophy. Thus, in the course of the 


THREE UNFORTUNATES 


ioo 


summer with which this narrative is con- 
cerned, it came to pass that Percy Thorold, 
who was still young, who did not so much 
as know that he possessed a liver, and 
whose love for his cousin had become a 
mere memory, began to think that there 
were good, and even adorable, women in 
London, notwithstanding the excellent 
reasons that he had for believing the con- 
trary. At all events, he thought that there 
was one such woman, and it is obvious 
that when you have gone the length of 
making that admission there is an end of 
your pessimism. 

Paramount as were the claims of public 
affairs upon his attention, he had never- 
theless found time during those summer 
months to see a great deal of Dorothy 
Leslie, and the more he had seen of her 
the more he had learnt to appreciate her 
immeasurable superiority to the rest of her 


no THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


sex. After all, there must be a few excep- 
tions even to the most stringent of rules ; 
and here, surely, was one of them. He 
was still willing to maintain that women in 
general are false, fickle, and foolish. Now, 
as regarded this bright and rare example 
of what all women ought to be, but unfortu- 
nately are not, there was one thing specially 
noticeable about her ; namely, that although 
she might, if she had chosen to give them 
any encouragement, have had a very 
respectable number of admirers, she did 
not seem to care in the least for admiration. 
What made. her so delightful was that you 
could talk to her as to a reasonable being. 
When she spoke of art or music or politics or 
any other subject in which you and she were 
jointly interested, you might feel sure that 
she had no arriere penste — that she was 
not merely leading you on with a view to 
putting you in a good humour and so 


THREE UNFORTUNATES 


m 


acquiring a firm basis for the opening of 
those siege operations which rich men soon 
learn to recognise and dread. It was, in 
short, perfectly clear that she neither 
expected nor wished you to make love to 
her. 

Not that these sage and just reflections 
prevented Percy from making love to her — 
quite the contrary. There are a thousand 
different ways of making love ; and his, 
if a quiet and undemonstrative one, was 
no whit less effectual and effective than the 
others. At what period of their acquaint- 
anceship it first dawned upon him that 
the feelings which he entertained for Miss 
Leslie were not precisely those of a father 
he could not afterwards remember ; nor 
indeed was this a question of any import- 
ance. It was sufficient for him to know 
that life would no longer be endurable for 
him without her, and it was very pleasant 


1 12 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

to him to suspect that when he should tell 
her as much— which he fully intended to 
do before the end of the season and the 
session — she would not be altogether 
displeased. But there is no rose without 
a thorn, and a very annoying little thorn 
(if indeed it could be called a little one) was 
provided for Percy Thorold in the memory 
of that fell compact to which Lord Guise 
had persuaded him to become a party some 
months back. He was very angry with 
Lord Guise when he thought of it and still 
more angry with himself. Of course there 
was no getting out of the absurd agreement ; 
he had pledged his word of honour, and he 
must do what he had undertaken to do. 
Still the idea of submitting Dorothy Leslie’s 
name for approval to three such men as 
Guise, Moreton, and Schneider was horribly 
distasteful to him, and his inclination was 
to put off the bad quarter of an hour as 


THREE UNFORTUNATES 113 

long as possible. Of the disapproval of 

these gentlemen he did not feel much afraid. 

In the first place, they would hardly, he 

% 

presumed, have the impertinence to object 
to Miss Leslie ; in the second place, they 
were but slightly acquainted with her ; 
thirdly and lastly, he was prepared, by way 
of a bribe, to accord to them his full and 
free permission to marry any three ladies 
upon the face of the earth whom it might 
please them to select. What he did not 
like at all was the prospect of hearing his 
own selection discussed, however cursorily, 
and this deterred him from summoning a 
meeting which, in good faith, he ought to 
have summoned as soon as his intentions 
became clear to him. 

It was not until the month of July that 
he was somewhat rudely awakened to a 
sense of his duty. By that time his devo- 
tion to Miss Leslie had been very generally 


1 


ii 4 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

remarked upon, and Miss Leslie’s mother, 
for one, was beginning to think that if he 
meant anything he had better say so. Mrs. 
Leslie was not a worldly woman, and was 
in no great hurry to see her only daughter 
married ; but she thought that Dorothy 
ought to have the chances to which all 
girls are entitled, and it stands to reason 
that those chances must be diminished by 
the conspicuous and apparently welcome 
attentions of one man. She therefore took 
an opportunity of saying to Mr. Thorold 

“ I hope you won’t be too busy to come 
and say good-bye before we leave. We 
shall be going home in less than a week 
now.” 

It was at one of the last big official 
receptions of the year that this communica- 
tion was made to Percy, who was a good 
deal disconcerted by it. Although he had of 
late been so constantly in Dorothy's society, 


THREE UNFORTUNATES 115 

their meetings had far the most part taken 
place under the benevolent auspices of Lady 
Belvoir, and his interviews with Mrs. Leslie 
had been few and far between. A certain 
anxious look in the good lady’s eyes made 
her meaning tolerably plain to him, and 
indeed he felt that her anxiety was justifi- 
able. Well, it should soon be set at rest ; 
but of course he must now lose no time 
about taking Guise and the other men into 
his confidence. He told Mrs. Leslie how 
very sorry he was to hear of her imminent 
departure and promised that he would call 
in Ebury Street in a day or two ; after 
which, he moved away in search of Lord 
Guise, of whose red beard he had caught 
a glimpse earlier in the evening. 

But Lord Guise, when discovered, was 
standing with his back against the wall, 
propounding original solutions of the Irish 
difficulty to a knot of amused politicians, 


n6 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

and it was evident that there was for the 
present no chance of obtaining his undivided 
attention. Percy, therefore, passed on in 
quest of somebody else, whose undivided 
attention he was fortunate enough to secure 
ere long. Miss Leslie, when he joined her, 
was one of a group of three or four persons ; 
but these slipped away, one by one, imme- 
diately after his approach, and he could not 
help remarking that a similar phenomenon had 
occurred under similar circumstances more 
than once of late. He had no objection to its 
occurrence ; only it certainly seemed to show 
that his courtship had lasted long enough. 

“ I have just been horrified to hear from 
Mrs. Leslie that you are going away,” he 
began. 

44 1 shouldn’t have thought that that was 
such a very horrifying piece of news,” said 
Dorothy, laughing. “ Most people do leave 
London in July, don’t they?” 


THREE UNFORTUNATES 


ll 7 

“Yes, unless they have the bad luck 
to be members of Parliament. But I didn’t 
realise, somehow, that the end was so near. 
Shall you be sorry to go ? ” 

“ I shall be sorry for some things,” 
answered the girl. “It has been very 
pleasant, and people have been very kind 
to us Oh, yes; I shall be sorry” 

“ I wonder whether you will be half as 
sorry as I shall be ! ” 

To this it was obviously impossible that 
Dorothy should make any reply ; for how 
could she gauge the depth of Mr. Thorold’s 
probable sorrow ? Consequently she held 
her peace, and he went on to tell her how 
dreadfully he would miss her, how empty 
London would seem after her departure, 
how he would hate the remainder of the 
long, weary session, and a good deal more 
to the like effect. Perhaps her silence led 
him on to say rather more than he ought 


n8 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

to have said without going farther still ; but 
as it seems likely that the majority of those 
who will read these pages have been in 
love once in their lives, some clemency will 
doubtless be displayed in their judgment of 
him. He could not propose to her there and 
then, by reason of that ridiculous pledge; but 
in a few days at the outside he would be 
free to declare himself, and he was naturally 
eager in the meantime to find out, if he 
could, what answer he would receive to his 
declaration. It cannot be said that a quarter 
of an hour of investigation brought him to 
the point of actual certainty ; yet at the 
expiration of that interval he was in high 
spirits, and since he took away with him 
one of the flowers which Dorothy had been 
wearing in the front of her dress, it may be 
assumed that he had no reason to despond. 
Before wishing her good night he had ascer- 
tained that .she would be at home on the 


THREE UNFORTUNATES 


119 

following Wednesday and that she did not 
expect any other visitors on that afternoon. 

Meanwhile, he was not the only person 
who, at the same time and place, had 
reluctantly determined to convene an early 
meeting of the Anti -matrimonial League. 
Lady Belvoir, magnificent in emeralds and 
diamonds, was present at this reception, and 
Lady Belvoir, like Mrs. Leslie and other 
less notable personages, was about to with- 
draw the light of her countenance from 
London. She said so to many of those 
with whom she conversed, and amongst 
others to Eustace Moreton, who of late had 
dogged her footsteps wherever she went. 

“ I knew you would be off before long,” 
he sighed. “Well, tell me what day you 
mean to start, and I will order the funeral.” 

“Whose funeral?” she asked, wonder- 
ingly. “Not mine, I hope?” 

“No; mine. I’m going to cut my throat. 


120 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

Did you ever happen to set eyes on a 
man who was utterly and quite seriously in 
despair ? If not, it might interest you to take 
a look at me ; because that is what I am.” 

Lady Bel voir availed herself of this per- 
mission ; and there was a great deal more of 
tenderness and compassion than of wonder- 
ment in her gaze. 

“Poor boy!” she exclaimed, “this is what 
comes of fancying oneself a cynic before 
one’s beard is well grown. It serves you 
right ; and yet I am sorry for you. What 
woman has been treating you so cruelly ? ” 

“ As if you didn’t know ! ” 

“ How can I know if you won’t tell me?’ 
Lady Belvoir asked, with a slight smile. 
“Come — who is she?” 

“ I can’t tell you,” answered Moreton. 
mindful of his obligations. “ At least, I can’t 
tell you now, and I don’t think I ever will. 
It wouldn’t be of the slightest use. She 


THREE UNFORTUNATES 


12 


is a great lady and a great beauty; there’s 
no harm in my admitting that much. Well, 
you know what I am — an impecunious 
nobody. Of course, she would laugh in my 
face if I had the audacity to tell her that 
I loved her. Added to which, she has only 
been amusing herself with me ; she doesn’t 
really care two straws whether I cut my 
throat or not.” 

“ Great ladies and great beauties,” re- 
marked Lady Belvoir, pensively, “are not 
always so inhuman as they are thought to 
be by young cynics. Am I a great lady ? 
Well, I suppose I am, and I have been told 
that I am not altogether plain. In fact, 
you yourself have told me so, I believe. 
Yet I am sure that you would never think 
of calling me hard-hearted.” 

Moreton knitted his brows and looked 
at her suspiciously. “ Are you laughing 
at me?” he asked. 


122 THE BATE LED CONSPIRATORS 


“ What is there to laugh at ? Come and 
see me some day before I go away — you 
shan’t meet Miss Leslie this time — and I 
will show you that at any rate I am not too 
hard-hearted to feel for a friend in distress. 
Perhaps also,” she added, “ I might be able 
to give you some information and advice 
about this mysterious flame of yours, if only 
you could make up your mind to let me 
hear her name. Women do sometimes fall 
in love, you know, and when they do, they 
are capable of any folly.” 

“ Lady Belvoir,” exclaimed Moreton, 
eagerly, “suppose — just by way of an in- 
stance, you know — suppose you were the 
woman, and the man was some fellow like 
myself, without money or position or any- 
thing, would you, do you think — could 
you ?” 

“ Oh, I don’t know,” she answered, 
laughing, as she turned away ; “ so much 


THREE UNFORTUNATES 


123 


would depend upon the man, you see. But 
I will tell you this : I could never care for 
a man who was afraid to confess that he 
cared for me.” 

Alas ! when a man is in love, what 
does it avail him to know that the woman 
whom he loves is a desperate flirt and 
has had a hundred desperate flirtations ? 
More to ns heart beat high with hope as he 
made his way through the rooms, seeking 
for Lord Guise, who had long before this 
had enough of it and had gone off to his 
club. Instead of meeting the chief con- 
spirator, he encountered Thorold, who said : 
“ Have you seen Guise anywhere ? I want 
to speak to him rather particularly.” 

“ So do I,” replied Moreton. 

Then both men started and looked 
each other in the eyes for a moment and 
turned away in a somewhat shamefaced 
fashion. Each of them, however, subse- 


124 THE baffled conspirators 

quently took comfort from the thought that 
if there was another fool in the case, there 
would be one less person entitled to make 
pointless jests at his expense. 

If they had but known it — and really it 
was a little odd that Moreton did not know 
it — -a third member of their small confedera- 
tion was similarly incapacitated. To be 
invited tc a huge Ministerial function was 
no great honour for Mr. Schneider in those 
days, although such an invitation would have 
made him quite proud and happy the year 
before; but what caused him to exult be- 
yond measure upon this occasion was the 
marked civility and friendliness shown to 
him by more than one member of the 
existing Government To be sure, there 
was a reason for this, and a tolerably good 
one. Mr. Schneider and his friends had 
recently come to the conclusion that a man 
of his means ought to be in Parliament, and 


THREE UNFORTUNATES 


125 


it had been represented to him that the 
surest way of eventually gratifying that 
legitimate ambition would be to contest a 
seat which had just fallen vacant in Scot- 
land. There was little or no chance of 
wresting this seat from the Radicals ; but 
it was thought that their majority might be 
reduced, which would produce a good effect, 
and, of course, any one who should undertake 
this forlorn hope would establish a strong 
claim upon the good offices of his party. 
Mr. Schneider, therefore, courageously threw 
himself into the breach, and was very pro- 
perly complimented on his pluck by right 
honourable noblemen and gentlemen. 

“ I only wish there were more Conserva- 
tives who took your view of their duty to 
the party and the country, Mr. Schneider.” 
a very great man said to him that evening ; 
and Schneider replied, with no less truth 
than felicity, that such words more than 


126 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

rewarded him for the labour of fighting an 
uphill battle. 

And no doubt it was natural enough 
that, seeing so many kindly and encouraging 
faces around him, and hearing so many 
pleasant things said of him, Mr. Schneider 
should have felt that he was sailing 
on the top of the tide towards that fair 
haven upon which his eyes had for some 
time past been longingly fixed. “ Mr. 
Schneider and Sybil Countess of Belvoir 
entertained at dinner last night the Prime 
Minister, the French, German, and Russian 
Ambassadors, the Duke and Duchess of 
Paddington, etc.” Oh, rapturous vision ! 
What remained but to ascertain the views 
of Sybil Countess of Belvoir with regard 
to its fulfilment? Then this ardent wooer 
recollected, as others had done, that there 
was one trifling obstacle to be surmounted 
before her ladyship could be approached 


THREE UNFORTUNATES 


127 


with a direct offer ; but the recollection did 
not distress him as much as it had distressed 
the others , because, to begin with, he was 
under no apprehension of being laughed at, 
and besides, he did not think it at all likely 
that he would be interfered with. Moreton 
might possibly vote against him, Moreton 
being one of those conceited fellows who 
cannot stand being snubbed by ladies who 
fail to appreciate their fascinations ; but as 
for Lord Guise and Mr. Thorold, they would 
surely be forced to admit the suitability of 
the natch. Rank on the one side, wealth 
on the other — what more would you have ? 
There was no question of sentimentality 
about the business. 

It so chanced that he was able to do 
no more than exchange a few hasty words 
with Lady Belvoir until just as she was 
leaving, when she passed him at the top of 
the staircase with a smile and a familiar little 


128 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

nod. But after she had descended a few 
steps she paused and glanced back at him 
over her shoulder. “ By the way,” she said, 
“ will one see you again ? I am off for the 
country, you know.” 

“ Indeed I did not know it,” answered 
Schneider, in dismay. “You don’t start 
immediately, I hope. When may I call 
upon you ? When shall I find you at 
liberty ? I — I have so many things that 
I want to say to you ! ” 

“ So many as that ? Wednesday, about 
six o’clock, then ; but don’t be later, or you 
may not have time to say them all before 
somebody else comes in. Good night.” 

There was perhaps a shade of mockery 
in her tone ; but what did that matter 
when her eyes expressed nothing but the 
tenderest kindliness? Schneider watched her 
tall, graceful figure until it disappeared, and 
felt that he was indeed a happy man. It 


THREE UNFORTUNATES 


lig 


was aH very well to tell Lord Guise and 
other heartless worldlings that he was 
desirous of marrying her for the sake of 
her social position ; but to himself he could 
admit the existence of a less discreditable 
reason than that. Lady Belvoir would 
probably have been quite touched if his 
thoughts could have been revealed to her. 


CHAPTER VII. 


THE SOCIETY PROTECTS ITS MEMBERS 

N the next morning but one after 
the events chronicled in the 
last chapter Lord Guise received 
three letters by the same post, which 
afforded him prodigious amusement. The 
first of them that he opened was from Percy 
Thorold, and ran as follows : 

“ My dear Guise, 

“ I dare say you haven't forgotten 
that, one evening after dinner, you induced 
me and two other idiots to join what I 
think you called a Bachelors' Mutual Aid 
and Protection Society, and that we bound 



THE SOCIETY'S PROTECTION 13 1 

ourselves to abstain from proposing to any 
woman until we should have received one 
another’s permission to do so. How I can 
have been so silly as to fetter myself in 
such a way I cannot imagine; but having 
given my word, of course I must keep it, 
and since I am now thinking of marrying — 
or at least of asking a lady to marry me — 
I must beg you to let me know when I 
can meet you and the other two victims. 
Please, let it be to-morrow, if possible, as I 
am much pressed for time, and for Heaven’s 
sake let the discussion be a short one ! I 
am sure you will understand how very dis- 
agreeable this tomfoolery is to me under 
the circumstances. 

“ Ever yours, 

“ Percy Thorold.” 

Eustace Moreton’s note was even more 
concise : 


k 2 


1 32 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 
“ Dear Guise, 

“ I couldn’t find you last night to 
tell you that I want a meeting of that blessed 
Anti-marriage club of yours summoned at 
once. I’m going to offer my heart and 
hand to somebody, if you’ll kindly allow 
me. I’ll tell you all about it when we meet, 
and I hope none of you will be ill-condi- 
tioned enough to put spokes in my wheel. 
After all, it’s nobody’s business but my own. 

“ Yours in haste, 

“ Eustace Moreton.” 

Mr. Schneider wrote at greater length 
and in more carefully chosen language ; and 
this was what he had to say for himself : 

<C M^ dear Lord Guise, 

“ When I joined you and our friends, 
Thorold and Moreton, some months ago, 
in an agreement that we would none of us 


THE SOCIETY'S PROTECTION 133 

offer marriage to a lady without previously 
submitting her name for approval to the 
other members of our society, I did not, I con- 
fess, think that I should be the first to claim 
the requisite permission and authority. Fate, 
however, has decreed that it should be so, 
and I feel sure that I may count, at least, 
upon your sanction. You may have your 
own opinion of the lady in question, and it 
may not be all that I (who am possibly a 
little better acquainted with her) could wish 
it to be; yet it would hardly, I think, be 
consistent with the views which I have 
heard you express, were you to oppose a 
union recommended chiefly, if not solely, 
by considerations of worldly prudence and 
advantage. I will not say more upon this 
subject now, as I hope to have an early 
opportunity of laying my case before you 
all. 


“ My time, as you know, is very much 


134 THE baffled conspirators 

occupied at present, and I may at almost 
any moment be compelled to go north. I 
am therefore most anxious to bring this 
matter to an issue as soon as possible, and 
if you could make it suit your convenience 
and that of our friends to meet me in the 
course of to-morrow I should feel greatly 
obliged. 

“ Believe me, my dear Lord Guise, 

“ Very truly yours, 

“ J. Schneider/’ 

if there was one of these missives which 
made Lord Guise laugh more than another, 
it was the last. Upon what ladies the choice 
of Thorold and Moreton had respectively 
fallen he did not know, though he had sus- 
picions with regard to Moreton ; but as to 
Mr. Schneider’s selection he was in no 
uncertainty, and the solemnity of that gentle- 
man’s style delighted him. 


THE SOCIETY’S PROTECTION 135 

“ I was sure from the first that there was 
no frivolity about Schneider,” he muttered. 
“ The people who set him down as a fool 
will find out their mistake one of these days. 
What a magnificent M.P. he will make, and 
what a joke it will be if Sybil accepts him ! 
If I can only reconcile it with my conscience 
to vote for him I will certainly do so ; but I 
have a duty to perform, and I must not 
think selfishly of my own amusement. ” 

In any case, the approaching meeting 
seemed likely to be an amusing one, and 
Lord Guise at once despatched replies to his 
three correspondents, requesting them to 
dine with him that evening. His messenger 
speedily brought him back grateful ac- 
ceptances of his invitations ; so that it only 
remained to give the necessary instructions 
to the housekeeper. Lord Guise, when in 
London, inhabited a few rooms in the some- 
what gloomy family mansion in Piccadilly 


136 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


which his father, who was an old man in 
failing health, seldom occupied. During the 
season he was supposed (the supposition was 
scarcely verified) to take the burden of 
entertainment off the ducal shoulders, and 
the services of the ducal chef were therefore 
placed at his disposition for three months 
out of the year. Consequently four gentle- 
men sat down in the spacious dining-room 
that evening to a dinner which only one of 
them appreciated. The other three were far 
too much preoccupied with their own 
thoughts to pay any heed to the fare set 
before them, and it cannot be said that their 
conversation was at all worth listening to. 

As for their host, he behaved admirably, 
not a smile appearing upon his face, though 
every now and then he was shaken by an 
access of inward merriment. He exerted 
himself a good deal more than was his wont 
to entertain his guests and set them at their 


THE SOCIETY'S PROTECTION 137 

ease, and he made no allusion whatever to 
the cause of their being where they were 
until after dinner, when he suggested that 
they should adjourn to his den in order to 
“discuss the business of the evening.” As 
soon as this move had been effected and 
cigars and cooling drinks had been brought, 
Lord Guise seated himself at his writing- 
table, which gave him somewhat the air of 
presiding over a council of state, his three 
associates having been accommodated with 
arm-chairs facing him. He opened the 
proceedings in an easy, colloquial tone, yet 
in such a manner as to convey the idea that 
he regarded them as quite serious. 

“ Well, my dear fellows, you have called 
a meeting of our society, as you were bound 
to do, and here we are. I hope and think 
that you will have reason to congratulate 
yourselves eventually, if not immediately, 
upon the beneficent working of the system ; 


138 the baffled conspirators 


but of course the system can only be made to 
work by each one of us determining to do 
what he believes to be best for the other, 
without fear or favour. What I mean to 
say is that there must be no bargaining, 
no sort of tacit understanding, such as ‘You 
vote for me and I’ll vote for you.’ Otherwise 
we shall quite defeat our own object. I 
wouldn’t insult you by speaking in this way 
if I could feel that I was addressing men in 
their sober senses ; but as no less than three 
out of the four of us have avowed their 
intention of committing matrimony, I don’t 
consider myself bound to apologise.” 

Lord Guise’s three hearers looked both 
surprised and shamefaced. They had not 
exactly anticipated this announcement ; but 
two of them had certainly contemplated 
securing a majority by the underhand means 
suggested. 

Their president, after surveying them 


THE SOCIETY'S PROTECTION 


139 


for a moment with serene benevolence, 
resumed : 

“ I now beg to move that Mr. Schneider 
be heard first. Those who are in favour of 
the motion will kindly hold up their hands.” 

Three hands, including Mr. Schneider’s, 
were at once raised, and that gentleman was 
accordingly invited to state his case. This 
he did in terms to which no exception could 
be taken. He was not, he said, going to 
dispute the truth of the axiom which might 
be regarded as the foundation and raison 
d'Hre of their society, namely, that a man in 
love is thereby incapacitated from judging 
whether the object of his affections is a 
suitable wife for him. That might or might 
not be so, and he neither admitted nor 
denied that he was in love with the lady 
whom he desired to marry. He ventured, 
however, notwithstanding what had fallen 
from Lord Guise, to submit that he was in 


i 4 o THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

full possession of his senses, and further, that 
the match which he had in contemplation 
could not be objected to by any fair-minded 
man. 

“ It is, if I may put things a little 
coarsely, a fair bargain. I have a good 
deal of money — I won’t claim any other 
advantage for myself — and Lady Belvoir 
has her title, as well as a social standing 
which ” 

“ Lady Belvoir ! ” interrupted Moreton, 
indignantly. “ I never heard such cheek — 
I mean, I never heard of anything so pre- 
posterous in my life! You needn’t trouble 
yourself to say any more, my good fellow ; I 
shall certainly vote against you. Why, you 
don’t suppose that your beastly money would 
be any temptation to her, do you ? Hang it 
all ! she might marry any man in England if 
she liked.” 

Lord Guise had to remind the speaker 


THE SOCIETY'S PROTECTION 141 

that his remarks were both intemperate and 
irrelevant. 

“ I don’t care what they are,” returned 
Moreton ; “ I shall vote against him.” 

“ And you, Thorold ? ” inquired Lord 
Guise, blandly. 

Mr. Thorold confessed that he had not 
been prepared to hear of such a project as 
that which had just been made known to 
them. If he was to give his candid opinion 
and to dismiss all other considerations than 
that of Mr. Schneider’s probable welfare 
from his mind, he was afraid he must say 
that it did not sound to him a promising 
one. At the same time, since there seemed 
to be a tolerably strong chance of Lady 
Belvoir’s declining the offer made to her 

“ Excuse me,” interrupted Lord Guise ; 
“ but that has nothing to do with your vote.” 

“ Thorold,” said Moreton, gravely, “ it 
strikes me that you are hedging. You 


142 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

aren’t allowed to hedge; it’s against the 
rules. If you don’t think the match de- 
sirable, you must express your convictions 
by your vote.” 

Pressed in this way, Percy was reluctantly 
compelled to declare himself opposed to the 
scheme for which the sanction of the meeting 
was asked. 

“ That,” observed Lord Guise, “ con- 
stitutes a majority, and I need not say 
whether I approve or disapprove. It follows, 
in virtue of our agreement, that Schneider 
is debarred from holding verbal or written 
communication with Lady Belvoir for a 
period of six months from the present date. 
Sorry for your disappointment, Schneider ; 
but there are many disappointments which 
prove to be blessings in disguise. Now, 
Moreton and Thorold, we are ready to hear 
you. Don’t both speak at once.” 

The gentlemen named showed no dis- 


THE SOCIETY'S PROTECTION 143 


position towards a display of unseemly haste. 
Each glanced interrogatively at the other, 
while the agonised protests of Schneider 
died away unheeded ; each looked thoroughly 
uncomfortable, and neither of them opened 
his lips. 

At length Moreton said : “ Well, I’m 
sure I don’t care who speaks first. It’s 
confoundedly unpleasant having to lay bare 
the secrets of one’s heart to three grinning, 
unsympathising beggars like you ; but I 
Suppose there’s no help for it. I won’t 
imitate Schneider by talking about bargains ; 
to my mind, there’s nothing so utterly dis- 
gusting as making marriage a bargain. I 
honestly confess that I am over head and 
ears in love — I don’t think I ever in all my 
life was so much in love — with Lady 
Belvoir.” 

“ Oho ! ” said Lord Guise. 

“ 1 don’t know what you mean by 1 Oho,* ” 


144 THE baffled conspirators 

returned Moreton, who was in a somewhat 
irascible mood; “but I wish you would allow 
me to finish. After that, you may oho till 
you're black in the face if you like. I was 
going to say that my being in love with 
Lady Belvoir doesn’t in the least blind me to 
her defects, so that it would be quite super- 
fluous for any of you to point them out to me. 
Please to bear in mind that what you have 
to consider is whether it would make me 
happy to marry a woman who is this, that, 
and the other, et cetera\ it isn’t a question of 
whether you would be made happy by 
marrying her. You can’t tell me anything 
about Lady Belvoir that I don’t already 
know ; and as for her failings — well, I prefer 
them to other people’s virtues. Now then ! ” 
Schneider, red in the face and a good 
deal perturbed, said, without a moment’s 
hesitation, that he could not possibly vote 
for his rival. He had no ungenerous feeling 


THE SOCIETY'S PROTECTION 145 


in the matter, he was personally willing to 
let any man take his chance ; but it seemed 
to him altogether absurd to suppose that 
Lady Belvoir and Mr. Moreton could live 
harmoniously together as man and wife. 

“ I should be sorry to make any confident 
prediction upon such a subject,” said Percy ; 
“ but I own that Moreton’s way of stating 
his case strikes me as straightforward and 
promising. Upon the assumption that a 
man is deceived as to the character and 
disposition of the lady whom he loves, we 
might be justified in interfering on his behalf ; 
but Moreton tells us that he is acquainted 
with all Lady Belvoir’s faults, and that he 
likes them. That being so, I don’t see why 
I should drag him back by the coat-tails. I 
vote in favour of his being allowed to try his 
luck.” 

“ Leaving the responsibility of decision 
with me,” remarked Lord Guise. “ Well, it 


146 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


would ill become me to shrink from exercising 
my rights. Moreton, my dear fellow, you 
will have to go into exile for six months. I 
don’t wish to harrow your feelings by saying 
what I think of Lady Belvoir; but it is sadly 
evident to me that if you like her peccadilloes 
now, you wouldn’t like them after you were 
married to her. You must really think over 
the future in a more serious spirit before you 
commit yourself.” 

Eustace Moreton’s rejoinder shall not be 
set down here, because it was couched in 
language much more vehement than he 
ought to have employed in addressing a 
friend who was cruel only to be kind. Lord 
Guise very properly took no notice of it, but 
merely said : “ The case is disposed of. 
Next boy.” 

Percy Thorold cleared his voice, threw 
away the end of his cigar, and began : 

“ This much is certain, anyhow — not one 


THE SOCIETY'S PROTECTION 


i47 


of you can pretend that he knows the girl 
whom I wish to make my wife as well as I 
do With Lady Belvoir we are all pretty 
well acquainted, and besides, she may almost 
be called a public character. At all events, 
her sayings and doings are chronicled and 
freely commented upon in newspapers which 
everybody reads. But Miss Leslie, I am 
thankful to say, is quite unknown to the 
general public, and I trust that she may 
long remain so. If anybody here can find 
a word to say against her, he must be 
tolerably bold, or he must have sources of 
information which are not open to me. As 
a matter of fact, you have all three met her, 
and I don’t see how you can very well have 
helped thinking her charming. Did you say 
anything, Moreton?” 

“ HI say it again presently,” answered 
Moreton, with a short laugh. “ Go on.” 

“ I don’t know that I have anything 


l 2 


1 48 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

more to add,” resumed Percy, a little 
disconcerted by this menace of incipient 
hostility. “ I can’t think that anything can 
be urged against Miss Leslie personally, 
and it is difficult to imagine what can be 
jrged against my proposing to her — except, 
indeed, that I am not good enough for her. 
That I fully admit ; only perhaps the option 
of replying to such a question might be 
granted to her.” 

“Oh, I’ve no doubt you’re good enough 
for her,” said Moreton ; “ but whether she 
is good enough for you, or for any man 
who wants to lead a peaceable life, is 
another matter. What do you think, 
Schneider ? ” 

Now, Mr. Schneider had been not a 
little incensed by Thorold’s adverse vote, 
which had appeared to him ill-natured and 
uncalled-for ; in addition to which, he had 
just as good reasons as Moreton had for 


THE SOCIETY'S PROTECTION 149 


disliking Dorothy. These he might have 
been magnanimous enough to overlook if 
the way in which he had been treated by 
the meeting had been such as to entitle any 
member of it to consideration at his hands ; 
but under all the circumstances, he felt 
himself quite free to say : 

“ Well, since I am asked, and since I 
believe I am expected to be candid, I must 
own that I should be sorry to see a friend 
of mine married to Miss Leslie. In my 
humble opinion, she has a nasty, sarcastic 
sort of disposition, and I doubt whether 
she would make her husband’s house a 
pleasant one to dine at.” 

“ I’m quite with you there/’ observed 
Moreton, with malicious complacency. “Not 
to mince matters, I think she is a perfectly 
horrid girl.” 

It has already been mentioned that 
Percy Thorold knew how to keep his 


i5o THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

temper under provocation. He said, with- 
out any outward manifestation of the wrath 
that he felt : 

“ Of course I am very sorry that you 
should both have formed so mistaken 
an opinion of Miss Leslie ; but I may 
venture to hope that time will modify 
it. Assuming, however, for the sake of 
argument that, if she accepted me, you 
would not accept a subsequent invitation 
to dinner from her, is that a sufficient reason 
for refusing me permission to consult my 
own tastes ? ” 

“ My good sir,” answered Moreton, who 
had no idea of granting to others what had 
been denied to himself, “ it isn’t of the 
slightest use to reason with us. We don’t 
like Miss Leslie, we don’t approve of her, 
and we should never forgive ourselves if we 
were to let you marry her without taking 
another six months for reflection. I have 


THE SOCIETY'S PROTECTION 151 

no doubt that I am expressing Schneiders 
sentiments as well as my own.” 

Mr. Schneider signified by a grave bow 
that such was the case. 

“ Then,” said Lord Guise, “ I am 
afraid there is nothing for it but to pass 
the usual sentence upon you, Thorold. The 
opinion of the majority is clearly against 
you, and the minority, if there is one, had 
better hold its peace. Now we have 
disposed of our business quite as har- 
moniously and expeditiously as could have 
been desired, and I trust we are all satisfied.” 

“ Satisfied ! ” growled Moreton ; “ well 
— hardly. I can answer for one of us being 
thoroughly dissatisfied. What the deuce 
am I to do, I should like to know ? It’s 
all very fine to tell me in an off-hand way 
that I mustn't speak to Lady Belvoir for 
another six months ; but it so happens that 
I have made an appointment with her, 


152 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

and I believe she understands perfectly 
well why I made it. A nice sort of fellow 
she’ll think me if I don’t turn up and never 
send her a word of explanation ! ” 

“ That is precisely my own predicament,” 
said Schneider, dolorously. “ I too have 
made an appointment with Lady Belvoir, 
and I cannot help thinking that I am more 
to be pitied than Moreton, because I have 
reasons which he can scarcely have for 

hoping however, I won’t insist upon that. 

But I do think that some opportunity should 
be given us of offering excuses. It is bad 
enough that we should be forced to excuse 
ourselves at all ; surely there is no occasion 
to make us behave like absolute cads into 
the bargain ! ” 

“ Really, Guise,” said Thorold, “ you 
must admit that that is a reasonable demand. 
What possible excuses we shall be able to 
make I don’t know ; but we must be allowed 


THE SOCIETY'S PROTECTION 153 

to say something. We can’t simply absent 
ourselves without a word or a sign.” 

M Why not ? ” inquired Lord Guise, 
blandly. 

“ Because, my dear fellow — speaking for 
myself, and I dare say I may speak for my 
partners in misfortune — we are more or less 
committed. I suppose it isn’t very usual 
for any man to propose to any woman with- 
out some preliminary sort of courtship, and 
for my own part, I certainly shouldn’t do 
such a thing unless I had a fair hope of 
being accepted. You see what a mess one 
gets into when one attempts to put these 
nonsensical theories of yours into practice.” 

“ I see,” answered Lord Guise, “ that 
you have got yourselves into a mess ; but 
whose fault is that ? You have all, I am 
sorry to find, broken the spirit of our agree- 
ment. You had no business to commit your- 
selves. Now, I don’t know much about 


154 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

Miss Leslie ; but what I do know is all in 
her favour, so that I shall be sincerely sorry 
if she is distressed by Thorold’s apparent 
faithlessness. At the same time, it must be 
remembered that in six months from now 
he will be at liberty to explain matters fully 
to her, and if she has any real affection for 
him it ought to survive a separation of six 
months. As regards Lady Belvoir, I am as 
certain as I am of my own existence that 
she cares neither for Schneider nor for 
Moreton, nor for any other living being 
except herself, and as for remembering any 
man who absented himself from her for half 
a year, she simply couldn’t do it. Therefore 
you need not feel the slightest uneasiness 
about her. She will be a little surprised 
when you fail to turn up ; but next week 
she will have clean forgotten you both — 
and a very good thing too! Women like 
Lady Belvoir are one of the scourges of 


THE SOCIETY'S PROTECTION 155 

civilisation. To a few men — of whom I 
happen to be one — they are not dangerous, 
and are consequently rather amusing than 
otherwise as a study; but to susceptible 
people like you they are worse than the 
plague, and the very best way for you to 
treat them is to run away from them. I 
heartily congratulate you upon being com- 
pelled to adopt that wise course.” 

This harangue, which was listened to 
with evident impatience, failed to produce 
any sedative effect upon the audience, 
amongst whom symptoms of mutiny were 
becoming apparent. Expression was given 
to these by Moreton, who said that, although 
he had pledged his honour as a gentleman 
to act in a certain way, if required to do 
so, he had never intended that pledge to 
apply to conduct unbecoming a gentleman, 
and that when one found oneself between 
the horns of a dilemma, one could but choose 


156 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

to be impaled upon the least sharp of them. 
Lord Guise, therefore, thought it prudent to 
make a concession. One last interview, or 
one last letter might be permitted, he said ; 
but it must be distinctly understood that only 
one of either could be allowed. All three 
of the condemned accepted these terms, 
perceiving that they could hope for no 
better, and shortly afterwards Moreton and 
Schneider took their leave. Thorold lin- 
gered for a while with his host, not caring 
to walk away in the company of men who 
had shown themselves so gratuitously spiteful 
towards him. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


A PAINFUL PREDICAMENT 



‘HEN these two friends were left 
together Lord Guise threw him- 
self back in his chair and laughed 
until the tears came into his eyes. 

“ Upon my word,” he exclaimed, “this is 
about the best joke I have ever heard of!” 

“It may be,” answered Percy, rather 
grimly, “ though some people might think 
that it was a little spoilt by being so ill 
natured.” 

“ Ill-natured ! What do you mean ? You 
look as if you meant me ; but I hope you 
aren’t so unjust as that. Is it my fault 
that three men over whose actions I have 
no control — except the limited control which 


I 5 S THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


they have been so kind as to give me — have 
seen fit to play the fool at one and the same 
time ? I suppose I may call that singular 
coincidence a joke without giving offence, 
may I not ? ” 

‘‘Yes; but what you are chuckling over 
is the way in which you have checkmated 
us all. I don’t deny that it is funny ; only 
I don’t call it exactly friendly.” 

“ Thorold, you are very ungrateful. 
Much as I dislike matrimony in the ab- 
stract, I fully recognise the fact that well-to- 
do men with domestic proclivities are bound 
to marry, and if my voting for you would 
have done you any good you should have 
had my vote. To the best of my knowledge 
and belief, Miss Leslie is unexceptionable ; 
but Moreton and Schneider, you see, think 
otherwise. I can’t help that.” 

“ And I have only myself to thank for 
the absurd fix that I am in ? That is true 


A PAINFUL PREDICAMENT 


J 59 


enough, I suppose ; but at any rate I have 
to thank you for suggesting this foul project. 
What on earth made you do it ? ” 

Lord Guise lighted a fresh cigar, tucked 
one leg under him and swung the other to 
and fro lazily. 

“ My dear fellow,” he replied, “ I will be 
perfectly candid with you. I confess that 
I started this society with a special as well 
as a general object, and I trust you won’t 
think me unfriendly when I tell you that 
that special object was your welfare. You 
are so evidently a marrying man that 1 
foresaw how easily you would be captured 
again, and I wished to protect you against 
widows and girls in their fourth season and 
other designing persons. I wasn’t even 
quite certain that I might not have to pro- 
tect you ojice more against Sybil Bel voir 
herself ; for that woman is so capricious and 
so malignant that nobody except a hardened 


160 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


philosopher, such as I am, can be considered 
safe from her.” 

I only wish she would try her hand 
on you ! ” exclaimed Percy, who was not at 
all gratified by this avowal of a benevolent 
interest in his private affairs. 

“ I sincerely wish she would,” answered 
Lord Guise, with a laugh ; “ that would 
keep her out of mischief for a time, and it 
wouldn’t do me any harm. But you may 
depend upon it that she won’t. She prefers 
to practise her arts upon an unfortunate 
wretch like Moreton, who had the audacity 
to imagine that he could resist her, or upon 
a millionaire like Schneider, whom she may 
have thought of marrying, fante de mieux. 
I wonder whether she would have married 
him ! They say she has been outrunning 
the constable .of late, you know.” 

“ I don’t know anything about it/' 
returned Percy, impatiently ; “ it is no busi- 


A P A INFUL PREDICAMENT 161 

ness of min^, and why vou should 1 ook 
upon it as your business I can’t think.” 

“ Ccelebs sum” replied Lord Guise, senten- 
tiously ; “ nihil femineum a me alienum puto. 
For the sake of my weaker brethren I feel 
it my duty to keep a watchful eye upon the 
ways and wiles of the other sex. Schneider 
will live to thank me with tears in his 
eyes.” 

“ Possibly ; and I dare say it is because I 
am more selfish than you that I don’t care 
a little bit what becomes of Schneider. 
What I should like to know, if you could 
tell me — but of course you can’t — is how 
I am to account to Miss Leslie for my 
extraordinary behaviour. As I fully intend 
asking her to be my wife in January next, 
I must manage to find some reason which 
won’t sound hopelessly inadequate for taking 
no notice of her between now and then.” 

“ That’s easily done. Go to Persia, or 


M 


1 62 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 


China, or Japan, or some such place. 
Parliament will be up in a week or two, 
and you won’t be wanted again before 
February, so that you will be quite free to 
leave the country. Tell her you want to 
study the working of the Chinese constitu- 
tion, or that you are anxious to pick up 
some specimens of ancient Japanese art 
before the last of them is sold.” 

“ Yes,” agreed Thorold, gloomily, “ I 
suppose that is what I shall have to say. 
I should think there was very little chance 
of her believing me, though.” 

Lord Guise shrugged his shoulders. 
“ Oh, I dare say she won’t quite believe 
you,” he admitted ; “ but that, as I told 

you before, is entirely your own fault. You 
ought to have consulted us before you gave 
her to understand that you loved her.” 

Strictlv speaking, Percv had not eone 
quite so far as that ; still, he had gone far 


A PAINFUL PREDICAMENT 


163 


enough to give his abrupt retreat a very 
ugly look, and it was with shame as well 
as grief in his heart that he set forth on 
the ensuing Wednesday afternoon to keep 
the appointment he had made with Miss 
Leslie. Now, in making that appointment, 
it had occurred to him that Mrs. Leslie 
would be terribly in his way, and he had 
wondered how he should contrive to get 
her out of the room just for a few minutes; 
but now he desired nothing more ardently 
than the presence of this third person, 
because, of course, what he had to say 
could be much more easily said to the two 
ladies together than to one of them alone. 
Surely, however, he might have known 
better than to imagine that no chance of 
speaking a private word to Dorothy would 
be given him. Mothers who give such 
chances are usually sneered at ; yet how 
can the poor things help themselves? If 


M 2 


1 64 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

we ourselves were mothers, and if we had 
reason to suppose that a young man of large 
means and excellent character desired to say 
something particular to a daughter of ours, 
and if there was but one occasion left on 
which he could say it, what should we do ? 
It seems exceedingly likely that we should 
act precisely as Mrs. Leslie acted, and 
arrange to have an old lady at tea with 
us on the arrival of the young man. The 
tea-table is in the back drawing-room ; there 
is a folding screen between it and the arm- 
chair in which you have planted the old 
lady ; you talk to your guest about her 
suppressed gout or some other topic of 
equally absorbing interest, and you grant 
the young man his opportunity without 
making it too disgracefully apparent that 
you are doing so. 

So, when Percy Thorold made his 
appearance at the house in Ebury Street, 


A PAINFUL PREDICAMENT 165 

there, sure enough, was the requisite old 
woman, and five minutes afterwards he was 
seated beside Miss Leslie in comparative 
seclusion. Hard was his fate, and hard the 
task which he had to perform. It is a fact, 
and rather a melancholy one — but nobody 
will deny the fact — that love, more than 
any other of the passions to which we are 
subject, is increased by being thwarted. 
Never before had Dorothy seemed to him 
so charming ; never before had he felt 
in the same degree the impossibility of 
saying even the most commonplace thing to 
her without letting her see how he adored 
her. He could not help noticing that her 
colour was a little brighter than usual, that 
her speech was somewhat quicker, and that 
there was a suspicion of nervousness in her 
manner. It was beyond a doubt that she 
had guessed the original object of his visit, 
and flesh and blood could hardly withstand 


1 66 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

the temptation to give her a hint as to the 
true position of affairs. However, he was 
an honourable man, and he knew that he 
must not dally with that temptation. To 
place himself beyond reach of it, he said, 
rather suddenly : 

" I suppose one won't see you again 
for an age, Miss Leslie. I am thinking 
of betaking myself to the uttermost ends 
of the earth until Parliament reassembles." 

Well, she certainly looked surprised ; but 
perhaps it may not have been so much his 
announcement as the tremulous voice in 
which he made it that surprised her. 

“ What do you mean by the uttermost 
ends of the earth ? ” she inquired, smiling. 
“ Not Westmoreland, I am afraid. That is 
where we shall be for a long time to come." 

“No," he answered, sadly, “not West- 
moreland. I had an idea of India and Japan 
and San Francisco. I shall hate the voyages 


A PAINFUL PREDICAMENT 167 

and the journeys, and indeed the whole thing 
from beginning to end ; but one comfort is 
that when it is over one will never be 
expected to do it again.” 

“ Oh, I dare say you will enjoy it,” she 
said, carelessly. 

“ I think not ; but it is the sort of thing 
that has to be done sooner or later. Every- 
body goes round the world nowadays,” he 
pleaded, making his desire to excuse himself 
a trifle too obvious, “ and — and I think I 
have rather knocked myself up with these 
night sittings, and no doubt I shall be all the 
better for a complete change, though the 
process may not be altogether pleasant while 
it lasts. And then, you know, there is one 
great advantage of going far away, which is 
the intense delight of returning to ones 
friends.” 

But of course he could not better his 
position by such speeches as that. Say what 


1 68 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

he would, the facts remained that he had 
paid marked attention to this girl, that he 
had begged a flower from her on the occasion 
of their last meeting, and that he had made 
an appointment with her for the ostensible 
purpose of saying good-bye to her, and the 
unmistakable purpose of saying something 
else. Now, apparently, he had nothing to 
tell her except that he meant to run away, 
and that he was a good deal ashamed of 
running away. Whether she loved him or 
hated him or did not care a brass farthing 
about him, such conduct must inevitably 
strike her as contemptible. And that it did 
so strike her, the unfortunate man perceived 
plainly enough, although she said nothing 
worse to him than: 

“ I can’t imagine any delight being 
exactly ‘ intense ’ to you ; you would always 
be thinking of the reverse side of the shield, 
even though you couldn’t see it,” 


A PAINFUL PREDICAMENT 


169 


“ Indeed you are quite wrong !” he pro- 
tested, warmly. “Very likely I do keep 
rather too watchful an eye upon the seamy 
side of most things; but that only gives me 
a keener joy in the things which have no 
seamy side. And one of those things,” he 
ventured to add, “ would be a visit to 
Westmoreland. Will you be there the whole 
of next winter, do you think ? In the month 
of January, for instance ?” 

“ I really don’t know ; but we live there, 
and we don’t often leave home,” answered 
Dorothy. 

“ So that if I were to turn up at that 
time — if I happened to be staying for a 
few days with my cousin, Sybil Belvoir — I 
might hope to find you in the neighbourhood? 
I don’t see why I shouldn’t invite myself to 
stay with Sybil w r hen I return,” he continued, 
musingly. Then something that he saw in 
Dorothy’s face prompted him to add: “She 


170 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

and I are nothing more than friends and 
cousins now, and I am sure that she is quite 
as glad of that as I am.” 

Miss Leslie made no rejoinder ; but 
presently she asked him whether he would 
have another cup of tea, and, on his declining, 
moved into the front room, whither he 
followed her perforce. The old lady, who 
may have had intelligence enough to surmise 
why her company had been desired, and why 
her room would now be more welcome, rose 
at once to depart, and after she had gone 
poor Percy had to pass through an uncom- 
fortable five minutes. Mrs. Leslie was a 
simple, honest sort of woman, and as the 
news which her daughter imparted to her so 
calmly filled her with consternation, it was 
quite out of her power to conceal what she 
felt. 

She said, “ Oh, indeed ! ” and then 
remained absolutely silent while her visitor 


A PAINFUL PREDICAMENT 


171 

explained somewhat confusedly that he re- 
quired a change, and that it was the fashion 
to go round the world now, and so forth ; 
but when he reached the point of saying 
that he should try to be in Westmore- 
land in six months’ time, she could not 

refrain from giving him a tolerably direct 
snub. 

“We do not see much of Lady Belvoir’s 
friends,” said she. “ Lady Belvoir scarcely 
visits at all in the county, and I should not, 
in any case, care very much about that kind 
of society. Besides, I am not at all sure 

that we shall be at home in January. I 

should be glad to escape the long winter, 
and we may very possibly move south when 
the cold weather sets in.” 

“ And if you do go south, where will 
you go ? ” asked Percy, who felt that he 
could not afford to accept a snub. 

“That is quite uncertain. Dorothy, dear, 


1 7 2 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

didn’t you say that you wanted me to go 
to some shops with you ? And do you see 
what the time is?” 

After that, Percy could only take himself 
off as speedily as possible. Mrs. Leslie’s 
method of showing displeasure was lacking 
in grace and dignity ; but she had every 
right to be displeased, and he had none 
to resent the very chilling accents in which 
she bade him farewell. Dorothy, if less 
undisguisedly angry, was scarcely less cold ; 
and the impression which he took away with 
him was that his chance of ever being for- 
given was small indeed. Carlton House 
Terrace was perhaps rather an odd place 
to go in search of consolation ; nevertheless, 
it was to Carlton House Terrace that he 
betook himself straightway. His cousin was 
the only person, except Lord Guise, to whom 
he could confide even a portion of his woes, 
and he remembered that she had more than 


A PAINFUL PREDICAMENT 


T 73 


once displayed a good-natured sort of interest 
in this second love affair of his. 

Lady Belvoir was at home, and the 
speech with which she received him was a 
welcome one to his ears, because it enabled 
him to plunge without preface into his 
subject. 

“ Have you come to ask for my bless- 
ing?” she inquired. “I heard that you 
were expected in Ebury Street this after- 
noon, and I am so extraordinarily clever that 
I can guess what errand took you there.” 

“ You are very clever,” he replied ; “ but, 
like other clever people, you sometimes make 
a bad shot. I went to Ebury Street to say 
good-bye. The fact is that I have made 
up my mind to take a trip round the world, 
and I suppose I shall hardly be back before 
the beginning of next year.” 

‘‘Dear me!” said Lady Belvoir. “And 
what do you mean by that, pray ? ” 


i 7 4 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

“Oh, I don’t know; nothing in particular. 

I want to see Bombay, and Calcutta, and 
Yokohama, and — and all the other horrid 
places that people talk about.” 

“ You look as if you did. And I wonder 
why you wanted to begin by seeing me ; 
and I wonder what you think I can do for 
you ; and I wonder whether Dorothy has 
refused you, or whether you only concluded, 
for some insufficient reason or other, that 
she would refuse you if you asked her?” 

“ Well, she hasn’t refused me, and I 
haven’t asked her, and I’m sure I don’t 
know what the consequences of my asking 
her would have been,” said Percy, laughing 
a little. “ As to what you can do for me, 
I think that if you were very good-natured 
and kind, you might give me a general in- 
vitation to stay with you in Westmoreland 
when I return from this abominable trip.” 

“Consider yourself generally, not to say 


A PAINFUL PREDICAMENT 


*75 


particularly, invited,” answered Lady Belvoir; 
“might a bewildered friend inquire once 
more what you mean by starting off on a 
trip which you call abominable ? ” 

This was a very natural and excusable 
question ; but of course it was not in Percy’s 
power to make any reply to it. After a 
moment of hesitation, he said : 

“ I have reasons ; but I am afraid I 
can’t tell you anything about them, except 
that they aren’t discreditable or dishonour- 
able reasons.” 

“ One is relieved to hear that,” observed 
Lady Belvoir, with a twinkle in her eye. 
“ One has acquired — quite against one’s will 
— a certain knowledge of the ways of men 
which leads one to distrust even the best- 
behaved of them. However, my faith in 
you knows no bounds ; so that I am willing 
to take your word for it that you are going 
away because you think you ought to see 


176 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

Yokohama. The only thing is — do you 
really imagine that Dorothy Leslie is the 
kind of girl to wait meekly until you come 
back, and to drop a curtsy when you are 
graciously pleased to offer her your hand 
and what remains of your heart ? ” 

“Ah, that’s just it! You know, Sybil, 
you have treated me rather badly, haven’t 
you ? ” 

“ So you have always said, and you are 
one of those people who are always right. 
How can I make amends ? Shall we renew 
our engagement ? ” 

“ No, thank you ; I shouldn’t like that ; 
nor would you. But although you certainly 
did treat me badly, I don’t believe you are 
altogether heartless, Sybil.” 

“ This is indeed gross flattery ! ” ex- 
claimed Lady Belvoir. “ What can he be 
going to ask for?” 

“ Not for any very enormous favour. 


A PAINFUL PREDICAMENT 


177 


What I was thinking was this : you may 
feel that you owe me a good turn, and it 
wouldn't give you a great deal of trouble to 
write to me once or twice while I am away. 
And couldn’t you, perhaps, just put in a 
word for me sometimes, when you saw your 
opportunity ? Les absens ont toujours tort y 
and, owing to circumstances which I can’t 
at present explain, it will be impossible for 
me to say a word for myself.” 

“ I see. I am to hold the fort for you, 
and I am to keep on repeating, ‘ He will 
return, I know him well.’ But what if you 
don’t return, my good friend ? What if you 
meet with some enchanting creature on board 
one of the many steamers in which you will 
have to take a passage, and forget the poor 
maid of Westmoreland ?” 

“ You know I shall not do that.” 

“ Do I * If I do, it’s all I know about 
your mysterious disappearance. Now, look 

N 


178 the baffled conspirators 

here, Percy, as I told you before. I have a 
childlike faith in you; I may say that you are 
the only perfectly honest man whom I have 
ever known. But if I undertake this job, it 
must be upon the distinct understanding that 
I am to be enlightened eventually as to the 
whole meaning of it. I rather think that I 
can smell a rat; still I am not sure; and I 
must be made sure, or I shall die of baffled 
curiosity.” 

“It will give me the greatest possible 
pleasure,” answered Percy, gratefully, “to 
tell you all about it as soon as I am at 
liberty to do so. And do you think, Sybil 
— candidly now — do you think that there is 
any hope of my being pardoned ? I don't 
mind confessing to you that I went rather 
farther than I ought to have done, and I 
know Mrs. Leslie is furious with me. One 
can t blame her.” 

“Oh, you goose l n exclaimed Lady 


A PAINFUL PREDICAMENT 


179 


Belvoir, laughing, “what signifies Mrs. 
Leslie’s fury? Don’t you understand that 
if you want to be pardoned by a woman, all 
you have to do is to make her love you ? 
After that, she will pardon anything and 
everything. More fool she, no doubt; but 
we are made like that.” 

“ Are you made like that ? ” asked Percy, 
wonderingly. 

“ Qui vivra verra. Would you mind 
going away now ? I am about to hold an 
interesting and affecting interview with a 
friend of yours who has been gnawing his 
nails with impatience in my boudoir for the 
last half-hour.” 


N 2 


CHAPTER IX. 


LADY BELVOIR SMELLS A RAT 

ADY BELVOIR’S wits, which 
were as sharp as those of any 
woman in England, seldom led 
her to form false conclusions. Clear enough 
was it to her that her cousin’s honourable 
intentions had been thwarted by some 
malignant meddler, and very little doubt 
had she that Lord Guise was the culprit in 
question. The only thing that she was 
puzzled to account for was Lord Guise’s 
power to prevent any independent man 
and true lover from acting as he pleased. 
And what was the meaning of that six 
months’ limit ? One can imagine a fana- 
tical opponent of matrimony urging his 



LADY BELVOIR SMELLS A RAT 181 


friend to look for six months before leap- 
ing ; but one really cannot imagine his friend 
taking such advice. Lady Belvoir, there- 
fore, was perplexed, though convinced that 
she was upon the scent ; and as perplexity 
was a condition of mind to which she was 
neither accustomed nor disposed to submit, 
she could not divert her thoughts from the 
unsolved problem when she passed slowly 
into her boudoir, where Mr. Schneider had 
been requested to await her. 

Had she been less preoccupied, she 
might have taken more notice than she did 
of poor Schneider’s nervous agony and the 
incoherence of his speech. As it was, she 
attributed these symptoms of distress to a 
not unnatural cause, and did not trouble 
herself to allay them. Let him flounder 
and stumble for a while ; it was only right 
that he should be to some extent conscious 
of his impudence. For, however much 


182 the baffled conspirators 


one may belong to one’s epoch and have 
emancipated oneself from worn-out aristo- 
cratic traditions, one is still aware of the 
existence of such ^ thing as breeding, and 
one cannot regard oneself as belonging to 
quite the same species as a little mongrel 
millionaire. One may, however, marry a 
mongrel for the sake of his millions, and 
Lady Belvoir had seriously thought of 
doing so. She was rather deeply in debt, 
she was living far beyond her income, she 
hated the notion of retrenchment, and there 
are worse things than a husband who is 
at once rich and submissive. She lay 
back in her luxurious arm-chair, fanning 
herself and contemplating with a certain 
languid amusement the stammering wretch 
before her, who looked uncomfortably hot 
and to whose words she scarcely listened. 

“Shall I, or shall I not?” she was 
thinking. “ Really I don’t believe I can. 


LADY BELVOIR SMELLS A RAT 183 

At any rate, not yet ; he is too ridiculous. 
If the worst comes to the worst, he can 
always be sent for.” 

But while she was thus mentally dis- 
posing of him her attention was suddenly 
arrested by some phrase of which he made 
use and which had an odd sort of sound. 
What in the world was the man saying ? 
“ Business matters which have been too 
long neglected — absolutely necessary for me 
to look into my affairs and find out how 
I stand— doubtful whether I shall be able 
to see anything of my friends for some 
months to come.” These were confused 
and equivocal statements, nor was the 
manner of their enunciation such as to 
inspire confidence in the sincerity of the 
speaker. “ As I live,” thought Lady 
Belvoir, in utter stupefaction, “ the fellow 
is trying to back out of it ! ” 

Never in all her experience had such 


1 84 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

a thing as this occurred to her before, and 
she could hardly believe her ears. Instantly 
she forgot all about Percy Thorold and 
Lord Guise, a' about her pecuniary em- 
barrassments and the results to which they 
might lead, and devoted her whole intelli- 
gence to the study of this new and most 
extraordinary phenomenon. A mongrel 
millionaire showing anxiety to l: : ck himself 
clear of Sybil, Lady Belvoir ! This required 
looking into a great deal more than Mr. 
Schneider’s affairs could possibly do. 

The position of the luckless Schneider 
was, as every one must see, awkward and 
difficult in a degree far surpassing that of 
Percy Thorold. Percy, in deciding to absent 
himself for six months, had, in fact, adopted 
the only admissible course ; when one is 
forbidden to speak to the woman whom 
one loves, there is absolutely nothing for 
it but to fly the country. But from this 


LADY BEL VOIR SMELLS A EAT 1S5 

course Schneider was debarred by various 
considerations, not the least important of 
which was his ambition to enter Parliament. 
The Scotch election he would no doubt 
lose ; but were he to follow up his defeat 
by flight, he would forego any subsequent 
chance that might offer of repairing it, and 
would likewise be considered to have 
resigned all claim upon the indulgence of 
the wire-pullers. The commercial instincts 
which were his by right of heredity would 
not suffer him to make such a sacrifice as 
that. Yet, if he remained in England, how 
could he avoid meeting Lady Belvoir ? 
And when he met her, how could he avoid 
addressing her ? It was not as though she 
were one of those people who disappear 
at the end of one London season and are 
seen no more until the opening of the next. 
She was no less certain to be at Doncaster 
and Newmarket — not to mention other 


1 36 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

places — than if she had been one of the 
stewards of the Jockey Club, and pretending 
not to see her would be as futile as pre- 
tending not to see the winning-post. In 
the grievous straits to which he was reduced, 
Schneider could hit upon only one pretext, 
which, feeble though it was, had just a 
shade of plausibility. It was quite true that 
his affairs demanded inspection. He was 
immensely rich, and his money was perfectly 
safe ; but this he did not know by personal 
inquiry. He had hitherto been too busily 
engaged in climbing the social ladder to 
ascertain the exact whereabouts of his vast 
capital ; and when a man is thinking of 
marrying, it surely behoves him to put 
things ship-shape. Might not Lady Belvoir 
be induced to understand and appreciate 
this delicacy ? At all events, he must make 
the attempt, because he could perceive no 
alternative open to him. So this was what 


LADY BELVOIR SMELLS A RAT i8j 

he was saying when the drift of his remarks 
first dawned upon her : 

“ The fact is, that I have been a little bit 
too careless and easy-going ; I’ve just drawn 
cheques when I wanted money, you know, 
and supposed it was all right. But a time 
comes when one feels that there must be 
an end of that — that one ought to find 
out what means one has at one’s disposal, 
and — well, if it comes to that, what settle- 
ments one could make, in the event of 
one’s being called upon to make settlements. 
Situated as 1 am, the process is likely to 
be a longish one, and I shall have to devote 
all my attention to it ; so that I’m afraid 
I may not be able to see much of my 
friends for some months to come.” 

This was the phrase which caused Lady 
Belvoir to prick up her ears. “ That is 
bad news for your friends,” she observed, 
suavely. 


1 88 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

“ Ah, I wish I could think so ! I wish 
some of my friends would miss me a 
hundredth part as much as I shall miss 
them ! But what I feel is that it’s inevitable. 
I’m awfully particular about these things. 
I don’t know whether you’ll understand 
what I mean ; it’s a sort of — of honourable 
scrupulousness. So long as one can’t say 
just what one is worth one is sailing, as 
it were, under false colours, don’t you 
see?" 

“And when you have found out just 
what you are worth,’’ asked Lady Belvoir, 
with perfect gravity, “do you propose to 
have the sum engraved upon a silver plate 
and to hang it round your neck, like the 
label on an old-fashioned decanter ? Or will 
you be satisfied with sending a paragraph 
to all the newspapers ? ’’ 

“Ah, Lady Belvoir, you think I want 
to swagger. But it isn’t that — it isn’t 


LADY BEL VOIR SMELLS A RAT 189 

really! Only events might occur — I might, 
for instance, be thinking of marrying — that 
is, if I could dare to hope that I had any 
chance of being accepted. And then the 
lady would naturally wish to know what 
my fortune amounted to.” 

“ Oh, quite naturally ; I should think it 
would be the first question she would ask.” 

“ And a nice sort of fool I should look 
if I had to answer that I didn’t know. 
So I have determined to go into the matter 
once for all, and, as I say, that will take 
rather a long time ; and I think that while 
I am occupied in this way I had better 
retire from the world, so to speak.” 

“ Do you mean that you will go into a 
sort of retreat in the City?” 

“ Oh, no ; one can’t very well disappear. 
One must see one’s horses run ; and then 
there will be the shooting, and — and, in 
short, I don’t think I need cut myself off 


1 9 o THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

from other men. Only perhaps it would 
be wiser — more straightforward, that is — to 
avoid the society of ladies for the next six 
months. Lady Belvoir, would you think it 
very odd if I asked you to take no notice 
of me — to behave as if you didn’t know me, 
in fact — for the present ? ” 

Schneider, as he put forward this re- 
markable demand, grew very red in the 
face ; for he could not but be aware of 
the insufficiency of the reasons which he 
had adduced in support of it. He was 
therefore greatly relieved to hear that Lady 
Belvoir would not think it odd — not in the 
least odd. 

“When is it that I am to be allowed 
to speak to you again ? ” she asked. “ Did 
you say six months hence ? ” 

“Yes; in January next I hope to be 
released from my — er — voluntary exile.” 

“ Ah ! And do you really imagine, Mr* 


LADY BELVOIR SMELLS A RAT 191 

Schneider, that I believe one single word 
of what you have been telling me ? ” 

The unhappy Schneider hung his head, 
and remained silent. Of course she didn’t 
believe him ; yet, since he could not reveal 
the truth, what was he to say ? 

She enjoyed his discomfiture for a few 
seconds before she resumed : 

“ Lord Guise is too clever by half ; and 
you, my dear Mr. Schneider, are not quite 
clever enough. How did he contrive to 
extort that promise from you and Mr. 
Thorold ?” 

“ Oh,” exclaimed Schneider, with just 
indignation, “ if Thorold has been betraying 
us ” 

“ But he hasn’t ; you betrayed yourself. 
It was that specified period of six months 
that enlightened me ; and my mention- 
ing Lord Guise was only a shot — which, 
I see, was a good one. And now, as 


i 9 2 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

I know so much, you may as well tell 
me all.” 

“ Don't ask me/’ pleaded Schneider, pite- 
ously ; “I have let out a great deal more 
fhan I ought to have done. I am bound 
by a pledge which I rashly took long before 

I But really I have no business to be 

saying this.” 

“A pledge to abstain for six months from 
speaking to the lady who you hardly dare 
to hope will accept you, and who is likely 
to be so keen about settlements ? ” 

“ Oh, not any particular lady,” began 
Schneider, and then checked hitnse f. “ I’m 
afraid I mustn’t answer questions/' he said, 
with an appealing look. 

It is certain, however, that he would have 
been made to answer just as many questions 
as Lady Belvoir chose to put to him if he 
had not been saved from disgracing himself 
farther by the entrance of Eustace Moreton, 


LADY BEL VOIR SMFLLS A RAT 193 

wh^ wps announced at this moment. The 
two men exchanged distrustful glances, and 
Schneider, willing enough to be dislodged 
from a position which had become almost 
untenable, hastened. to bid his hostess good- 
bye. He accompanied his farewell by a look 
full of meaning, in response to which she 
smiled graciously. 

“ Good-bye, Mr. Schneider,” said she. 
“ I hope your election will go the right 
way ; and if it doesn’t, I hope the next one 
will. We shall meet again some time and 
somewhere, I dare say.” 

“ Do you want to meet that — that animal 
again ? ” asked Moreton in a dissatisfied 
tone, as soon as his partner in misfortune 
had left the room. 

“Oh, I’m simply dying to meet him 
again — what else could you expect ? He is 
so good-looking and clever and refined and 
generally fascinating, isn’t he ? However, 


i 9 4 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

J shill ha vp to nrpt on as best T can without 
him ; for he has just been telling me that 
I mustn’t count upon renewing the rapture 
of intercourse with him before the beginning 
of next year.” 

“ Oh, he has, has he ? And what reason 
did he give for inflicting such a cruel 
bereavement upon you ? ” 

Lady Bel voir yawned. “ What reason ? 
Let me see ; what was his reason ? Do you 
know, I am afraid I have forgotten. But 
perhaps it doesn’t very much matter. Let 
us dismiss the absent from our minds and 
give our attention to some one who has 
the merit of being present. You had an 
interesting confession to make to me, had 
you not ? ” 

‘ Yes,” answered Moreton, gloomily ; 
“but since I saw you I have decided not 
to make it. T told you, vou know, that I 
was in despair then, and now I am twice 


LADY BEL VOIR SMELLS A RAT 195 

as much in despair — if that is possible. I 
am not going to cut my throat, because 
that sort of thing is so disagreeable for one's 
relations ; but I think I will go to Australia." 

“ I can’t imagine any one better fitted 
for the hardships of colonial life. When 
do you start ? And what made that 
unfeeling woman reject you, I wonder?" 

“ You know very well," returned Moreton, 
“ that she hasn't rejected me, because I 
haven’t asked her. I don’t for one moment 
suppose that asking her would have been 
any use ; but I can’t ask her now. Things 
have happened which make that impossible." 

“You don’t say so! Would it be very 
indiscreet to inquire what things ? " 

“ Oh, it wouldn’t be indiscreet ; nothing 
that you could say to me would be indiscreet. 
Only, unfortunately, I couldn’t reply. I have 
got into a mess which I am bound to keep 
secret ; all I can tell you is that, although 


1 9 6 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

I am as innocent as a baby, I am not free 
to confess to you — to confess to any woman, 

I mean — how I love her.’* 

“ That is very sad and very mysterious,” 
observed Lady Belvoir, gravely. “ And will 
you never be free again ? ” 

Moreton shrugged his shoulders. “ Prac- 
tically never,” he answered. “ I shall be 
free in six months ; but what is the good 
of being free in six months ? She will 
have forgotten all about me by that time. 
Besides, I don’t believe she ever cared for 
me.” 

Lady Belvoir kept her countenance 
admirably, though her suppressed merriment 
was great. 

‘‘It is difficult to believe that you 
can be in love with a woman whom you 
so thoroughly distrust,” she observed ; “ her 
memory may not be so short as you suppose. 
But of course I can give you no advice if 


LADY BELVOIR SMELLS A RAT i 97 

you decline to take me into your confidence. 
I may be wronging you ; yet it does sound 
to me very much as though you wanted 
to avoid proposing to her. You say you 
are as innocent as a baby — which may or 
may not be the case, but it doesn’t exactly 
accord with the reputation that you bear — 
nevertheless, you mustn’t open your lips 
for another six months. Why six months, 
rather than three months or a year ? All 
this is very inexplicable to me.” 

“ I knew it would be,” sighed Moreton ; 
“ but I can’t help it. I would give all I 
possess — that isn’t much, to be sure — to be 
able to speak more openly to you ; but the 
thing can’t be done. In all my life I have 

only loved one woman ” 

“ Oh ! ” interjected Lady Belvoir. 

“ Yes ; you may laugh, but it’s true, all 
the same. Only one woman ; the others 
were mere passing fancies. Well, I hope 


i 9 8 the baffled conspirators 

she knows it, though she can’t hear it from 
me.” 

“ Not even when the six months are 
up ? But perhaps that will be a long enough 
delay to cure you. I remember,” continued 
Lady Bel voir, artlessly, “ Lord Guise once 
saying to me that if a man could be kept 
for six months from proposing, he would 
never propose at all. That would be a 
most desirable state of things from his 
point of view.” 

11 I know it would — confound him ! ” 
growled Moreton. 

“ But why confound him ? It isn’t he 
who prohibits you from speaking, I suppose ? 
You would hardly obey him if he did. Well, 
since you are so very uncommunicative, I’m 
afraid there isn’t much that I can do for 
you ; and, of course, not knowing the 
woman’s name, I can’t judge of what your 
chances might be with her. Still, if silent 


LADY BEL VOIR SMELLS A RAT 199 

sympathy is any comfort to y6u, you can 
come to me for it as often as you want it.” 

Moreton responded by a gently re- 
proachful look. He knew that Lady Belvoir 
was as well acquainted with the name of 
the unnamed one as he was. And had he 
not just stated that he must be severed 
from her for six months by a cruel fate ? 
However, he felt that he could not con- 
scientiously go any farther than he had 
already gone, so he said : 

“You are awfully kind; but I shan’t be 
able to come to you for sympathy if I’m 
in Australia, you see.” 

“You will return from Australia, and 
on your arrival you will find me as sym- 
pathetic as ever. By the way, do you 
hold especially to Australia? If not, you 
might offer yourself as a travelling com- 
panion to Mr. Thorold, who is about to 
start for Japan and California.” 


200 _ THE BAFFLED CONS PIE A TOES 

“ Oh, Thorold is going to Japan, is he ?” 
said Moreton ; and then he glanced half- 
questioningly at his informant, who pre- 
served an impassive demeanour. 

Well, it really would not do to hesitate 
and hint any longer. Fearing lest he should 
be led to betray what he had no right to 
betray, Moreton got up hastily and made 
his adieux. He did not say that he would 
be back in England by the beginning of 
the next year, but he allowed it to be in- 
ferred that that was probable ; and he 
ventured to express a hope that he would 
not be entirely forgotten during his absence. 
Lady Belvoir replied demurely that she 
never forgot her friends; and when she 
took his hand she gave it a very slight 
pressure, which he thought himself justified 
in returning. 

No sooner had he departed than Lady 
Belvoir made a gesture of triumph. 


LADY BELVOIR SMELLS A RAT 


201 


“ I will be even with Guise for this ! ” 
she muttered. “ The whole thing is as clear 
as crystal. He foresaw what was likely 
to happen to these men, and he made them 
swear by their gods that they wouldn’t 
engage themselves to me until after a sepa- 
ration of six months. Of course he was 
sharp enough to make the prohibition 
general. Schneider said ‘ no particular 
lady ; ' and Dorothy Leslie has evidently 
been knocked over by a shot which wasn’t 
aimed at her ; but there isn’t much doubt 
as to who was intended to be the victim 
of this diabolical plot. Very well, my dear 
Guise, since you choose to defy me, we will 
fight it out — rim bien qui rim le dernier / ” 


CHAPTER X. 


THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR IN DANGER 

NE afternoon, towards the close of 
the year treated of in this un- 
pretending account of a shameful 
conspiracy, a somewhat dejected - looking 
gentleman was seated before the smoking- 
room fire of a mansion in the Midlands. 
He had been out hunting, and, as circum- 
stances had caused him to abandon the 
chase rather earlier than other people, he 
had ensconced himself in this comfortable 
arm-chair to smoke a cigar and meditate 
awhile before going upstairs to dress for 
dinner. It was the chief conspirator. His 
muddy boots reposed upon the- steel fender ; 
his right arm hung loosely by his side, his 



THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR'S DANGER 203 

fingers almost touching the floor ; his head 
was so sunk forward upon his breast that 
his nose and his reddish beard met. Any- 
body seeing him would have said, “ Here 
is a man who is tired out ; in another five 
minutes he will have fallen asleep, dropped 
his cigar, and burnt a hole in the hearth- 
rug." 

Lord Guise, however, was not sleepy ; 
he was only pensive, depressed, and uneasy 
in his mind. What he was saying to him- 
self was : 

“ This is becoming simply intolerable ! 
Wherever I go, I am bound to meet 
that woman. It really almost looks as 
if people did it on purpose. Not that I 
should mind meeting her if only she 
could be ordinarily civil ; but one does like 
to be answered when one speaks. Hang 
it all ! why can’t we be friends ? We 
always used to be. Now, I don’t suppose 


204 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

there is a man in all England who cares 
less about that kind of thing than I do ; 
still, I defy anybody to say that he enjoys 
seeing a pretty woman either yawn in his 
face or turn her back upon him every time 
that he makes an effort to perform his social 
duties. And I have never denied that she 
is a pretty woman. In fact, pretty isn’t 
the word ; she is absolutely beautiful — the 
most beautiful woman I have ever seen, 
for that matter/’ 

Here Lord Guise heaved a long sigh, 
shifted his position, and took several pulls 
at his cigar, which was nearly out. 

“ I’m not sure,” he resumed presently, 
“that I haven’t been a little bit too hard upon 
Sybil Belvoir; I’m not sure that I haven’t 
been too hard upon women generally. One 
grows more tolerant as one grows older. 
After all, what harm is there in flirtation ? 
And how do I know that she has ever 


THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR'S DANGER 205 

done anything worse than flirt ? I don’t 
believe she has ; and certainly I don’t believe 
a tithe of the stories which men who haven’t 
exchanged a dozen words with her in their 
lives think themselves very knowing for 
telling about her. A nice lot they are 
themselves! I could tell her one or two 
things about some of these fellows who 
are always hanging round her which 
would make her open her eyes, I suspect, 
though she is by way of knowing every- 
thing. Of course it isn’t permissible to tell 
tales , but, upon my word, I sometimes 
almost wish it was ! Talk about the du- 
plicity of women ! Why, what can you 
expect of them when they have to con- 
tend against the duplicity of men ? ” 

It will be perceived that in the course 
of the summer and autumn Lord Guise’s 
views with regard to the sexes had under- 
gone some modification. But that, perhaps, 


206 the baffled conspirators 

was scarcely enough to account for his low 
spirits ; because, although one is sorry to 
have formed unjust judgments, one does not 
exactly make oneself miserable over mistakes 
to which, being but mortal, we are all liable. 
And, indeed, to sum matters up, Lord Guise 
was unhappy because a lady whom he 
had known from her childhood would have 
nothing to say to him. He was also puzzled ; 
otherwise, possibly, he would have been less 
unhappy. While he was revolving discon- 
nected thoughts and vague conjectures in 
his mind, his host — a ruddy, jovial old 
gentleman — tramped in, and threw himself 
down upon a chair, dropping his hunting- 
crop. 

“Well, Guise,” said he, “you’ve missed 
the quickest thing of the season.” 

“ That,” observed Lord Guise, “ is of 
course. Who ever went out on a lame 
horse without missing the quickest thing of 


THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR'S HANGER 207 

the season ? I don’t want to hear about it, 
thank you. We shall have a good many 
trustworthy accounts of it before we are 
allowed to go to bed, no doubt. I suppose 
all the other men were well in it from start 
to finish ? ” 

" Well, most of them, I believe. One 
or two of the women, too. I must say 
I enjoy seeing women ride straight to 
hounds. ,, 

“ I don't believe it,” answered Lord 
Guise, politely. 

“ Oh, you’re a miso — what-d’ye-call- 
it; we all know that You don’t enjoy 
seeing women in the hunting-field or any- 
where else. By the way, what’s wrong with 
Lady Belvoir that she won’t come out ? 
She was as keen as mustard last year.” 

“ I’m sure I don’t know,” answered 
Lord Guise. “ Perhaps her nerve is be- 
ginning to go.” 


208 the baffled conspirators 

“No fear! I only wish I had half 
her pluck ; but at my time of life one 
finds out that one isn’t quite what one 
used to be. Do you know what my wife 
says ? She says she believes Lady Bel- 
voir has stopped hunting because you don’t 
approve of it.” 

“ That,” observed Lord Guise, getting 
up and stretching himself, “ is flattering 
to me ; but as a shot it can’t be called 
good. Lady Belvoir doesn’t honour me 
by asking for my opinion of her proceed- 
ings, and nothing is more certain than 
that, if she did, she would decline to be 
influenced by it. When Lady Belvoir has 
given up doing all the things that I dis- 
approve of, she will be a tolerably pro- 
mising candidate for the Salvation Army.” 

“ Oh, well, one must make allow- 
ances,” said the good-natured old gentle- 
man. “ Perhaps, if you or I were in her 


THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR'S DANGER 209 

place — young*, and pretty, and independent 
of any control, you know — we should act 
pretty much as she does, eh ? " 

“ I haven’t a doubt of it/' answered 
Lord Guise. “ Let us be thankful that 
we are not exposed to the same tempta- 
tions. It’s about time to go and dress, 
isn’t it ? ” 

Possibly this plea for leniency, coming 
as it did from an unprejudiced outsider, 
and chiming in with the voice of his own 
conscience, may not have been without a 
certain effect upon him. At any rate, 
when he had dressed and had joined the 
large party awaiting him in the drawing- 
room (Lord Guise was always late for 
dinner), he felt ready to make any allow- 
ance that could be reasonably expected 
of him for one situated as Lady Belvoir 
was. The ^nlv thing* that he could make 
no allowance for was her marked and 


2io THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

persistent neglect of old friend. Evei 
since the end of the London season — such 
a long time ago now — he had been per- 
petually encountering Lady Bel voir. He 
had met her at Goodwood ; he had met 
her at Cowes ; he had met her in Scot- 
land, and at Doncaster, and at New- 
market ; and now, as sure as ever he 
accepted an invitation to a country-house, 
so surely was her face among the first 
that he descried after his arrival. Well, 
it was not an unpleasant face to contem- 
plate — quite the reverse — but it was in- 
variably turned away the moment that 
he drew near, and this method of treat- 
ment, which at first had scarcely stirred 
his curiosity, had ended by provoking 
him beyond all endurance. What the 
deuce did she mean by it ? 1 hat was all 

he wanted to know 

Whatever she may have meant by it, 


THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR'S DANGER 


2 1 1 


she evidently did not propose discontinu- 
ing it that evening. The friend of her 
childhood was requested to escort her to 
the dining-room ; but scarcely a word could 
be got out of her, though he did what 
in him lay to be amiable and conciliatory. 
No sooner had they taken their places 
than her shoulder was turned towards him, 
and from that time until the departure of 
the ladies all his efforts to attract her 
attention proved fruitless. Sometimes she 
did not appear to hear what he said, and 
even when she did reply, it was in the 
briefest possible terms. Lord Guise, like 
the generality of phlegmatic men, was 
obstinate and persistent. He was not 
going to be put off in that way any 
longer without knowing the reason why ; 
so he waited patiently until an oppor- 
tunity occurred, later in the evening, of 
addressing Lady Belvoir privately ; and 


2i2 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

very likely he did not think of asking 
himself by whom that opportunity had 
been created. 

He drew a chair up beside hers, seated 
himself with a determined air, and said : 

“Now, Sybil, I’m going to have it 
out with you. How have I offended you ?” 

“ Have I ever said that I was offended ? ” 
she asked, raising her eyes slowly to his. 

“No; because that would have been 
superfluous. But perhaps, after all, it 
isn’t offence; perhaps it’s aversion. If so, 
I should like to be told what I have done 
to incur it. We used to get on pretty 
well together once upon a time.” 

Lady Belvoir sighed ever so slightly. 
“ I think,” she remarked, “ that that was 
before you took to saying unkind and 
spiteful things about me behind my back.” 

“What things?” asked Lord Guise, 
reddening a little. “Of course one does 


THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR'S HANGER 213 

sometimes say things — everybody does — 
about one’s best friends which one would 
be sorry for them to hear ; but it is the 
talebearers who are unkind and spiteful. 
I have called you a flirt, I admit.” 

“ And you don’t consider that a spite- 
ful thing to say ? ” 

“ Come now, Sybil, you surely won’t 
deny that you are a flirt ! ” 

“ I do deny it. Is it my fault if I 
can’t make myself in the least pleasant 
or friendly to any man without his at 
once jumping to ridiculous conclusions ? 
But it is useless to attempt excuses, and 
indeed it isn’t worth while. I used to 
think that you were different from the 
others ; but I have discovered my mistake. 
Pray, go on slandering me to your heart’s 
content ; I haven’t complained, and I don’t 
mean to complain.” 

Though this was said very proudly, 


2 14 THE baffled conspirators 

it was not said without a perceptible faltering 
in the speaker’s voice which caused Lord 
Guise to feel both sorry and ashamed. He 
answered quite humbly that he had no 
wish to slander anybody — least of all one 
for whom he had always had the sincerest 
regard. Would she mind telling him of 
any particular instance in which he had 
slandered her ? 

“ Oh, you wouldn’t allow that it was 
slander,” she returned. “ Besides, I really 
don’t care; you are welcome to say what 
you please. Only perhaps it is a little 
too much to expect that I should be over- 
joyed when I meet you. Have you seen 
anything of Mr. Schneider lately ? ” 

Lord Guise knitted his brows and 
scanned her face sharply ; but her lowered 
eyelids told no tales. 

“ Schneider ? ” he repeated ; “ yes, I 

saw him a few weeks ago. He has been 


THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR'S DANGER 215 

in high favour with the bigwigs since he 
reduced the Radical majority in Scotland, 
and now they are going to put him in 
for Slumberton, you know.” 

“ I know nothing about him or his 
plans ; he has seen fit to cut me dead. 
How delightful it is to be cut dead by a 
Mr. Schneider! And how pleasant it is 
to think that he has been warned against 
me .by a friend who has always had the 
sincerest regard for me ! I wonder why 
Mr. Moreton has fled to New Zealand, and 
I wonder who persuaded Percy Thorold 
to circumnavigate the globe ! ” 

“Not I, at all events,” answered Lord 
Guise ; “ I am innocent of having advised 
that circular tour. Or, at least, if I did 
tell him — and now that I come to think 
of it, I believe I did — that it would be 
a good way of spending the recess, it 
wasn’t in order to get him out of your 


>i6 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

way that I did so. I n fact, I happen to 
know ” 

“ Oh, so do I ! ” interrupted Lady 
Belvoir. “ I am quite aware that I had 
ceased to be a danger. You had already 
delivered him from me ” 

“And you from him.” 

“Yes, if you like. But your opinion 
of me was as bad as ever, and I dare say 
you may have thought that no friend of 
mine was likely to be much better than 
myself. Very well ; opinion is free, and 
you can keep yours. You can do your 
best to deprive me of my friends, and you 
can object to everything that I do, and 
put the worst construction upon aH my 
actions, only you really must not expect 
me to look as if I liked it.” 

Again there was that unusual quaver in 
her ladyship’s voice, and again her conscience- 
stricken hearer felt touched and penitent. 


THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR'S HANGER 217 

What she had said was so very nearly the 
truth that he could not set up much of a 
defence for himself ; but he assured her 
that, if he had ever spoken unadvisedly or 
ill-naturedly of her, he was very sorry for 
it, and that he wouldn’t do it again. As 
for Moreton and Schneider 

“ Oh, what do I care about Moretons 
and Schneiders ? ” she interrupted, half- 
laughingly, half-impatiently. Then, all of a 
sudden, she jumped up and crossed the 
room to join a group of young men and 
maidens, leaving it to be inferred that what 
had vexed her had not been so much the 
loss of her admirers as the loss of her old 
friends esteem. 

Her old friend thought all this over 
seriously before he went to bed ; and on 
the following day, which was again a hunt- 
ing day, he surprised everybody by coming 
down in a tweed suit and announcing that 


2 1 8 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

he meant to drive to the meet, if he might 
have a pony -trap. “And, perhaps,” he 
added, “ as Lady Belvoir isn’t going to 
hunt, she will keep me company,” which 
did not lessen the general astonishment. 

Lord Guise, himself, was a little asto- 
nished when his proposition was at once 
acceded to, for he had been fully prepared 
for a rebuff. However, it seemed that 
Lady Belvoir’s mood had changed during 
the night and that she was now willing to 
bury the hatchet without further explanations 
or reproaches. 

“ I am going,” said she, as soon as she 
had settled herself in the little pony-cart 
and had drawn a fur rug round her, “ to 
enjoy myself for once in a way. Just for 
this morning I want to forget everything 
disagreeable, and I should take it as a favour 
if you would do the same. Since we shall 
have to spend the next hour or two together, 


THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR'S HANGER 219 

our wisest plan will be to make the best 
of one another, don’t you think so ? ” 

And indeed it was not difficult to make 
the best of her, because from that moment 
she began to make the very best of her- 
self. This was no longer Lady Belvoir, 
the professional beauty, the hard-hearted, 
cynical woman of the world ; it was the 
Sybil of bygone years — pretty, wilful, high- 
spirited, but capable, as one who had known 
her well had formerly thought, of warm 
affections and generous impulses. It was 
of those bygone years alone that she chose 
to talk. She asked her companion whether 
he remembered taking her out hunting — 
“ You didn’t object to my hunting then, did 
you ? ” she observed in a parenthesis — and 
how she had rushed her horse at a fence, 
and had been within an ace of getting a 
nasty fall ; and how she had almost cried 
when he scolded her for her bad riding. 


220 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

Then there were other incidents which she 
recalled to his memory, and which he had 
supposed that she had long ago forgotten. 
In those far-away days he had been wont 
to give her good advice, cautioning her 
against the selfish and corrupt society which 
she was about to enter, and imploring her 
to distrust the advances of men whose 
character and previous history must be un- 
known to her. Well, she certainly had not 
profited by these counsels. Her develop- 
ment had been singularly, almost inex- 
plicably, rapid ; the bloom of her youth 
and innocence had been rubbed off at the 
very first touch. Thinking rather sadly of 
this, and of what she was, and what he 
had once hoped that she might be, Lord 
Guise could not help saying : 

“ I never understood why you married 
Belvoir ; it was always a mystery to me.” 

“Was it?” she returned, with a quick 


THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR'S DANGER 221 


movement of her head towards him. “ I 
am glad of that ; I thought you were quite 
convinced that I married him for his 
position.” 

“ I couldn’t conceive of any other 
reason.” 

“ I suppose not. Ah, well ! it is an old 
story now, and nobody cares what my 
reason may have been ; and since then I 
have been engaged to Percy Thorold and 
have thrown him over, and I have been 
more than half inclined to engage myself to 
a dozen other men. What does it matter ? 
There is one right person, and only one, 
for everybody. Failing that person, Tom 
is as good as Dick, and Dick as Harry. 
Don’t you think so ? ” 

This and other speeches of a like nature 
produced a strange and disturbing effect 
upon Lord Guise. It was little enough 
that he thought about fox-hunting that day, 


222 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

9 

and although the hounds found at the first 
covert, and he witnessed the beginning of 
what promised to be a glorious run, he 
quite forgot to wish himself on horseback. 
During the homeward drive he scarcely 
spoke at all ; nor did he put in an appear- 
ance at luncheon. While the ladies were 
doing justice to that meal he was walking 
up and down his bedroom, and saying to 
himself in agitated accents : 

“Good Heavens, no ! this will never do. 
I may be entirely mistaken, and even if I 
were not — just think of it ! Once upon a 
time Sybil was as good a girl as ever lived ; 
but of late years — oh, its notorious, you 
know. Facts are facts, and there’s no 
getting over them. I can only do one thing, 
and I’ll do it before I’m an hour older!” 

The mistress of that house was an 
observant old woman, who knew how to 
put this and that together. It was therefore 


THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR'S DANGER 223 

with genuine reluctance and regret that she 
made a communication to Lady Belvoir 
later in the afternoon. 

“ Lord Guise has been telegraphed for, 
and has gone away in a great hurry,” she 
said. “It seems that he was actually out 
of the house before we had finished luncheon. 
He didn’t like to disturb us, he says in the 
note that he left for me. I am so sorry ! ” 

But Lady Belvoir did not appear to be 
sorry at all. She was in great spirits that 
evening ; she laid aside the air of demure 
propriety which had characterised her since 
her arrival ; she took a leading part in 
certain high jinks, which it is needless to 
particularise ; and towards the small hours 
of the morning she wrote to a correspondent 
of hers in Westmoreland a letter, in which 
the following passages occurred : 

“ I told you I would do it ; and now it 
is as good as done. Lord Guise fled prc- 


224 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

cipitately from me to-day, lest a worse thing 
should befall him. Perhaps you think I 
shall give chase ? My dear girl, it is not 
I who shall pursue him, but he who will 
come crawling back to me. ... I heard 
from Percy the other day. He was at San 
Francisco, and was as miserable as you 
could wish him to be. In a few weeks he 
will be back in England, and then, my 
dear, you will be good enough to put your 
pride in your pocket and forgive him. In 
fact, you will have to do so ; because if 
you don’t, I shall make no scruple about 
telling him what I know to be the case. 
There isn’t such a superabundance of hap- 
piness in this world that one can afford to 
throw away one’s chance for the sake of 
punishing a goose. As for Guise, who 
deserves no mercy, he shall get none. I 
mean to lay that man prostrate at my feet, 
and when he is there I shall simply dance 


THE CHIEF CONSPIRATOR'S DANGER 225 

on his head. Nobody can call me a ran- 
corous person ; but in this case I am not 
avenging private wrongs, I am acting 
as the champion of mv sex. And my 
sex may feel sure that 1 will do the thing 
thoroughly/'* 


Q 


CHAPTER Xi. 


ONE OF THE EXILES RETURNS 

F Mrs. Leslie did not quit her 
northern home for sunnier climes 
that winter, it was not because 
the will was lacking on her part. She 
did not like frost and snow ; she did not 
much like Lady Belvoir as a near neigh- 
bour, and she did not at all like the prospect 
of renewing acquaintance with a certain 
unsatisfactory cousin of Lady Belvoir’s on 
his return from foreign parts. It was true 
that no great harm had apparently been 
done, that Dorothy's spirits and health 
remained excellent and that Mr. Thorold 
might quite possibly have abandoned his 


il 


ONE OF THE EXILES RETURNS 227 

expressed intention of visiting Westmore- 
land ; still one would fain avoid all avoid- 
able risks. But Mrs. Leslie’s means were 
limited, and a season in London costs 
money, and it is no easy matter to find 
a winter tenant for a country house in 
Westmoreland. In Westmoreland, there- 
fore, this anxious mother continued to 
reside ; nor was her anxiety, which many 
trifles had contributed to keep alive, at 
all diminished when, in the beginning of 
the new year, Lady Belvoir returned home. 
Lady Belvoir had been away, paying visit 
after visit, for a long time past ; but now 
— so Mrs. Leslie learnt from Dorothy — she 
meant to give herself a few weeks of rest 
and quiet before proceeding to London. 

“ I suppose that means that she is 
going to fill her house with people,” was 
Mrs. Leslie’s comment. 


228 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

But Dorothy said : “ Oh, no, I don’t 
think so ; she told me that she was 
only expecting one or two of her re- 
lations.*’ 

And Mrs. Leslie felt a delicacy about 
inquiring whether any one of the name 
of Thorold was included amongst these. 
The fact is that no mention had been 
made of the absent politician between the 
mother and daughter since the day when 
he had taken leave of them. 

Now, it came to pass on a bitter 
January afternoon, when the ground was 
covered with freshly-fallen snow, and the 
sky was of a dull slate colour, and ragged, 
dirty-looking clouds were drifting along 
the slopes of the hills, that Miss Leslie, 
trudging briskly homewards from the Vicar- 
age, was overtaken by a pedestrian who 
must have descried her from afar and 


ONE OF THE EXILES RETURNS 229 

caught her up with difficulty ; for he was 
so short of breath that he could do no 
more than gasp out : “How do you do, 
Miss Leslie ?” as he removed his hat. 

Close inspection might have revealed 
the fact that, in addition to his physical 
exertions, he was affected by mental agita- 
tion, which is always a bad thing for the 
respiratory organs ; but Dorothy did not 
inspect him very closely. She only turned 
her head for a moment and said, without 
any appearance of surprise : 

“ Oh, how do you do, Mr. Thorold ? 
You are staying with Lady Belvoir, I 
suppose ? ” 

It is most disconcerting to be received 
in that matter-of-fact way by a person for 
whose sake you have just arrived at ex- 
press speed from the other side of the 
world, and Percy was proportionately dis- 


230 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

concerted. He could not help saying in 
a slightly injured voice : 

“ I was in California only three weeks 
ago. But perhaps,” he added, somewhat 
more cheerfully, “ Sybil told you that I 
was coming here.” 

“ I believe she did,” answered Dorothy, 
composedly. “ Besides, when we last saw 
you, you yourself said that you might 

perhaps be in our parts in the course of 

the winter.” And then, as a pause ensued 
which he seemed to find some difficulty in 
breaking, she resumed : “ It isn’t a very 
good time of the year to see Westmore- 
land ; I should think that in weather 
like this you must wish yourself back in 
California.” 

“ I have only one wish as regards 

California,” he answered, with needless em- 
phasis, “ and that is a most devout one 


ONE OF THE EXILES RETURNS 231 

that I may never see it again. Or Japan 
either, or India, or the Sandwich Islands, 
or any other of the abominable wildernesses 
through which I have been wandering for 
six weary months.” 

Dorothy raised her eyebrows in sur- 
prise. 

“ I never heard those countries described 
as wildernesses before,” she remarked. 
“ What a pity that you should have tra- 
velled such a long way and not enjoyed 
yourself! ” 

“ Oh, as far as that goes, I didn’t 
anticipate enjoyment,” answered Percy. 

He was now walking beside her, for it 
was impossible to stand still in such a 
temperature. “ I was on my way to call 
upon you,” he said, presently. 

Dorothy could do no less than beg him 
to carry out his intention ; and this she 


232 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

did, though without any great cordiality of 
manner. 

“ Yes,” he went on, rather nervously, 
“ 1 was obliged to come to-day, because, 
unfortunately, I am very much pressed for 
time. My cousin tells me that she wants 
to go up to London immediately, so that 
I felt I mustn’t miss a chance of seeing 
you.” He added— for somehow or other 
there seemed to be no possibility of leading 
up to his point by degrees — “ Didn’t you 
think it very odd of me to rush off round 
the world at a moment’s notice ? ” 

“Well,” she replied, consideringly, “I 
dare say I might have thought it odd if 
you hadn’t explained to me that everybody 
did that sort of thing nowadays, and that 
you were expected to do what everybody 
else did.” 

“ Did I say that ? I don’t remember 


ONE OF THE EXILES RETURNS 233 

what I said ; but I had to say something, 
and I couldn’t tell you my real reason then, 
as, thank Heaven ! I can now. Anyhow, 
you must have seen that I was not starting 
on this journey of my own free will. And, 
Miss Leslie, I think — I am sure — you must 
have seen something more than that. I 
think you must have known very well that 
what made me hate leaving England so 
was that that implied leaving you.” 

It was now Dorothy’s turn to look 
perturbed and embarrassed. She had not 
been prepared for so prompt a declaration 
as this, nor did she know how to reply to 
it. As she had a strict regard for truth, 
she decided upon the safe plan of making 
no reply at all ; and Percy resumed : 

“ Of course you knew it ; you couldn’t 
help knowing it — I made no secret of my 
love for you. It would have been better 


234 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

if I had said less until I was sure of being 
able to say more ; but the truth is, I never 
for one moment supposed that my mouth 
would be closed at the eleventh hour, as it 
was. I will tell you presently how that 
came to pass, and I hope you will see that 
I wasn’t very much to blame in the 
matter ; but it is such a long story, that 
I haven’t the heart to embark upon it while 
I am still in suspense. Besides, it may be 
that there will be no need for me to trouble 
you with the story at all. I mean that if 
you intended to refuse me last summer — 
did you intend to refuse me, Miss Leslie ? ” 
This was certainly not a fair question, 
and Dorothy would have been justified in 
declining to answer it. Declining to answer 
such questions is, however, pretty much the 
same thing as answering them ; so she said, 
in a resentful tone : 


ONE OF THE EXILES RETURNS 235 

“ Lady Belvoir seems to think that to 
ask for what you wanted would have been 
quite sufficient then, and that it will be 
quite sufficient now. No doubt she has 
imparted her views upon the subject to 
you.” 

“ She has been very kind and — and 
encouraging,” Percy was compelled to 
admit ; “ but I think that was chiefly 
because she was sorry for me and saw 
how much I needed a little encouragement. 
Then, too, she had faith enough in me to 
take my word for it that I did not leave 
England from any discreditable or dis- 
honourable cause. But she has never 
pretended to know for certain that you 
cared for me.” 

“Oh, indeed!” exclaimed Dorothy, 
flushing up ; “ she actually confessed that 
she didn’t know that for certain ! I am 


236 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

amazed at her moderation. Still, I don’t 
think I will trouble you to tell me that 
long story, Mr. Thorold ; you really don’t 
owe me any explanation or apology.” 

So far, Percy had not put his case very 
skilfully, and her annoyance was natural 
enough ; but a man who is thoroughly in 
earnest is not easily abashed, and Mr. 
Thorold was resolved to have a plain 
answer to a plain question. After a 
moment s silence, he said : 

“ I know you are too straightforward 
to trifle with me, and I don’t believe you 
will think me conceited for confessing that 
I had hopes before I left London. It 
isn’t a question of will or judgment ; one 
loves or one doesn’t love, for the simple 
reason that one can’t help oneself, and if 
you don’t and can’t love me, all the 
eloquence in the world would do me no 


ONE OF THE EXILES RETURNS 237 

good.” Then he stood still and made a 
half turn, so as to face her. “ Must I 
say good-bye now ? ” he asked. 

If Dorothy had not rehearsed a scene 
resembling this in many particulars, she 
would have been indeed an abnormal young 
woman ; but the worst of such meqtal 
rehearsals is that they are liable to be ren- 
dered altogether useless if the second person 
concerned in them fails to act his part, and 
it must be owned that Miss Leslie had 
expected to find her suitor a little more 
humble. As it was, she could only look 
down and trace lines upon the snow with 
the tip of her boot, which is no way to 
treat a man who is lacking in humility. 

However, when this mode of procedure 
had led to its inevitable result, and when 
some five or ten minutes had been spent in 
a manner which was doubtless found agree- 


238 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

able by two deserving persons, it seemed 
that, after all, Percy was properly impressed 
with a sense of his own unworthiness. 
Having said some rather extravagant things 
as to that, and having satisfied himself that 
he was Dorothy’s first love (who does not 
hasten to satisfy himself upon such points, 
and how many men, it may be wondered, 
receive replies as truthful as that which 
this lucky fellow was privileged to receive ?), 
he lamented, with evident sincerity, that 
his own record could not be represented 
as equally blank. 

“ There’s no use,” he sighed, “ in deny- 
ing that for a good many years I was very 
much in love with my cousin Sybil. Only 
I suppose it would be true to say that I 
wasn’t really in love with her, but with some 
imaginary being whom I pictured to myself 
in her place. I can’t be thankful enough 


ONE OF THE EXILES RETURNS 239 

that my eyes were opened before I met 
you, Dorothy ! ” 

“ She is a great deal kinder and better 
than you choose to allow,” declared Dorothy, 
who could afford to be generous. 

“Well — perhaps. Oh, yes; I dare say 
she is. But I stupidly took her for a sample 
of women in general, and not so very long 
ago I had quite made up my mind that I 
would have nothing more to do with women 
for the rest of my life. That was how it 
was that I allowed myself to be dragged 
into that idiotic conspiracy of Guise’s. By 
the way, I must tell you about the con- 
spiracy. It was one evening last spring, 
just before I met you for the first time. 
Three of us were dining with Guise at his 
club, and he was holding forth upon the 
folly of marrying for love. He said a man 
in love was the worst possible judge of 


240 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

the woman he loved, and I think we all 
agreed with him more or less. 1 ' 

“ Do you still agree with him ? ” Dorothy 
inquired. 

“ No ; because I am older and wiser 
now than I was then ; the experience that I 
had had at the time seemed to lend support 
to his view. Well, there was a good deal 
of talk, to which I didn’t listen very particu- 
larly until I heard Guise proposing to start 
a select society of bachelors for purposes of 
mutual protection. Every man who joined 
it was to give his honour as a gentleman 
that he wouldn’t offer marriage to any lady 
in the course of the ensuing year without 
having previously consulted his colleagues. 
And he was to agree to be bound by their 
decision : that is to say, if they disapproved 
of her or thought he wouldn’t be happy 
with her, he was to abstain from speaking 


ONE OF THE EXILES RETURNS 241 

or writing to her for six months. Of course 
I treated the whole scheme as a joke ; but 
I had no particular objection to taking the 
required pledge, because I was perfectly 
certain that I shouldn't want to propose to 
anybody before the year was out. I dare 
say the other two men may have had the 
same conviction about themselves ; for, as 
far as I remember, we none of us raised 
any difficulties. It just shows how little 
one can foresee the future, and how care- 
ful one ought to be about committing 
oneself.” 

“It does indeed ! ” agreed Dorothy. “ I 
suppose that is why Lord Guise felt it so 
necessary to protect you. And to think 
that, in spite of all his precautions, he should 
have failed ! ” 

Percv drew a lone breath. “ Yes,” he 
said, “ 1 have had better luck than I de- 


R 


242 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

served, and better 1”ck than I expected 
last July, 1 can tell you. Of course, as 
soon as I made up my mind that I couldn't 
let you leave London without telling you 
how I loved you, I had to summon a meet- 
ing of this abominable society, and then a 
most extraordinary thing happened. For 
when we met it appeared, if you’ll believe 
me, that two out of the other three members 
were in my own predicament. Well, one 
might have thought that, as all we wanted 
of each other was to be let alone, it would 
have been easy to come to an understand- 
ing ; but unluckily it didn’t prove so. The 
other two happened to have fallen in love 
with the same lady ; so that naturally they 
fell out, and I myself was obliged to vote 
against one of them, and the result was 
that the' r were both condemned to exile. 
After that, they retaliated upon me, and 


ONE OF THE EXILES RETURNS 243 

Guise triumphed all along the line. Wasn’t 
it a disastrous coincidence ? ” 

“Very,” answered Dorothy, who did not 
seem to be as much surprised by this 
harrowing tale as the narrator had antici- 
pated. “ But why did you invite opposition 
by voting against Mr. Schneider — or was it 
against Mr. Moreton?” 

“And pray, what makes you think that 
Schneider and Moreton were the two men in 
question ? ” 

“ Oh, Lady Belvoir told me that long 
ago. You forget that they both had to take 
leave of her, and to make some sort of lame 
excuse for cutting her acquaintance until 
after an interval of six months.” 

“ So you have known the truth al 
along ! ” 

“Not exactly ; but Lady Belvoir was 
clever enough to guess what the truth must 


244 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

be, and kind enough to let me hear her 
conjectures. She thought they might interest 
me, you see.” 

“ Well, really that was both clever and 
kind of Sybil ! ” exclaimed Percy, gratefully. 
“ Kind to me, I mean.” 

And when he imparted the news of his 
engagement that evening to his cousin, he 
did not forget to thank her for the important 
part which she had taken in bringing about 
that happy event. 

“ You certainly do owe me some thanks,” 
Lady Belvoir said ; “ but even if I hadn’t 
been glad to do you a service I should have 
felt it my bounden duty to frustrate the 
designs of that wretch Guise. It is all very 
fine for him to talk about the protection of 
bachelors in general ; but if that was his 
object, why didn’t he try to make a few more 
recruits? The fact is that his plot was 


ONE OF THE EXILES RETURNS 245 

aimed simply and solely against me — and 
before I have done with him I will make him 
very sorry that he ever attacked me.” 

“ Dorothy gave me a hint that you meant 
to punish him for his sins,’ 7 remarked Percy, 
smiling ; “ but what can you do with such a 
hardened reprobate ? Do you — do you 
really think of marrying him, Sybil ? ” 

“ There is an innocent sincerity about 
your epigrams which makes me truly thank- 
ful that I am not in Dorothy’s shoes,” said 
Lady Belvoir, tranquilly. “ No, I do not 
propose to marry Lord Guise — I would 
rather marry a crossing-sweeper, and so I 
shall tell him. But he shall beg and implore 
me to marry him ; I can promise you that 
much.” 


CHAPTER XII 


LADY BELVOIR TAKES HER REVENGE 

ERCY THOROLD might have 
felt more interest in the awful 
retribution with which his friend. 
Lord Guise, was menaced if he had believed 
in the probability of its ever being carried 
into effect ; but he suspected that Guise 
would prove too hard a nut for even Lady 
Belvoir to crack, and in any case he was 
disposed to deprecate hasty action. 

“ Why/’ he asked his cousin at breakfast 
the next morning, “ should you rush off 
to London and open siege operations in 
this breathless way ? You’ll only frighten 
him. Besides, you must remember that he 



LADY BEL VOID’S REVENGE 


247 


can't propose to you without our permis- 
sion ; and we shall undoubtedly inflict a 
six months' sentence upon him if he applies 
to us. That is the very least that we 
can do for one who has shown so much 
kindly care for our happiness.” 

“ Who told you that I hadn’t opened 
siege operations already ? ” returned Lady 
Belvoir ; “ and who told you that I am 
going up to London to see Lord Guise ? 
Your esteemed president isn’t the only man 
in London ; he isn’t even the only member 
of your society. If yours were not a naturally 
selfish character, and if you were not made 
doubly selfish just now by the condition 
that you are in, you would have given a 
thought to two absent friends who have 
been treated quite as badly as you have. 
I have heard that Mr. Moreton has come 
back from New Zealand, and the Morning 


248 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

Post tells me that the new Member for 
Slumberton has arrived in town.” 

“ Oh — I see ! Poor fellows ! ” 

“ I don’t know why you should pity 
them both. It is obvious that in a Christian 
country I can only marry one of them, 
and to be married by me seems to be the 
most terrible fate that your imagination 
can picture.” 

“ Oh, you’ll marry neither of them ; but 
you won’t let them depart in peace, I’m 
afraid. That’s why I am sorry for them.” 

“ My dear Percy, you have never under- 
stood me and you never will. On the other 
hand, I understand you perfectly, and I 
understand that what is troubling you at 
the present moment isn’t the thought of 
Mr. Schneider's or Mr. Moreton’s sorrows, 
but the prospect of having to leave West- 
moreland and Dorothy Leslie. Well, now 


LADY BE L VOIR' S REVENGE 


249 


I’ll show you how benevolent I am. I 
must be off to-morrow ; but if you like to 
stay where you are, there’s no reason in 
the world why you shouldn’t. Whether I 
am here or not, fires have to be kept 
going all over this great, cold house, and 
you might as well warm yourself before 
them as not until Parliament meets. Later 
on I’ll ask Dorothy to come up and stay 
with me, and I suppose I shall have to 
take in the old woman too, if it’s a question 
of buying a trousseau. Well, anything to 
oblige.” 

• It need scarcely be said that Percy 
gratefully accepted this offer ; and perhaps, 
all things considered, he was not very sorry 
that his cousin felt it incumbent upon her 
to take her departure. There is always 
a certain feeling of awkwardness in sitting 
between the old love and the new, even 


2 5 o THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

though the old love may have abdicated 
as willingly as Lady Belvoir had done. 
And so, during the succeeding fortnight, 
Mr. Thorold enjoyed himself very much, 
notwithstanding the wintry weather, and 
Dorothy was happy, and the soul of Mrs. 
Leslie was satisfied. One must indeed be 
hard to please if one be not satisfied with 
a son-in-law whose means are ample, whose 
character stands high, and whose political 
future is full of promise. 

Meanwhile Lady Belvoir also was enjoy- 
ing herself, though possibly in a somewhat 
less legitimate fashion. On the day after 
that of her arrival in Carlton House Ter- 
race, an agitated visitor was shown into 
her presence ; and this was really remark- 
able, because if there was one thing from 
which Lord Guise might be said to be 
free, as a general rule, it was agitation. 


LADY BEL FOIL’S REVENGE 


251 


Not only, however, was he perturbed now, 
but he made no effort to disguise the fact. 
Without responding to the commonplaces 
with which she greeted him, he at once 
made known the object of his visit. He 
said : 

“ Sybil, I think I have known you long 
enough to have the privilege of waiving 
ceremony with you when I feel inclined. 
At all events, I am going to waive ceremony 
now.” 

“ But that isn’t precisely a novelty, is 
it?” interpolated Lady Belvoir. “You 
were a little bit unceremonious in the way 
you took leave of me — or, rather, omitted 
to take leave of me — not so long ago.” 

“ I was called away in a hurry.” 

“ By whom or by what, I wonder ? 
Never mind, though ; it is no business of 
mine, and I am not inquisitive. Please 


252 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

go on being unceremonious. You are 
going to say something very disagreeable, 
of course ? ” 

“ I dare say it will be more disagreeable 
for me to say than for you to hear ; but 
I find that I really can't hold my tongue 
about it. I saw that little beast Schneider 
to-day. ” 

“Poor Mr. Schneider! What has he 
done to be called a little beast ? Did you 
think him a little beast when you were so 
kind as to introduce him to me?” 

“ Yes, I suppose so ; I really don’t re- 
member what I thought about him at that 
time. What I know now is that he is an 
admirer of yours, and that he has the im- 
pudence to intend asking you to marry 
him.” 

“ But I thought you knew that ever so 
long ago,” observed Lady Belvoir, calmly. 


2 53 


LADY BEL VOIR’ S REVENGE 

“ Was it on account of his impudence that 
you voted in favour of his being forbidden 
to speak to me for six months ? Mr. 
Moreton, too, was he impudent, or only 
unfit to take care of himself?” 

“ Oh, the cat is out of the bag then ! ” 

“The cat, as you say, is out of the 
bag. You didn’t suppose that she would 
remain in it for many hours after time was 
up, did you ? And now that she is out, 
I may say that a meaner, mangier animal 
I never beheld. However, it is some 
comfort to know that you haven’t succeeded 
in parting Percy Thorold and Dorothy 
Leslie. Will it astonish you to hear that 
they are engaged ? Percy came straight on 
to me in Westmoreland, after he had landed 
at Liverpool, and the next day he made 
it all right. No thanks to you, though. 
How popular you will become before long, 


254 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

if you go on meddlifig with other people’s 
affairs in this way ! ” 

“ I am very glad that Thorold has got 
what he wanted,” said Lord Guise, meekly. 
“ It was no fault of mine that he didn’t 
get it before, or that Miss Leslie had con- 
trived to offend the other two men. Per- 
sonally, I hadn’t a word to say against her.” 

“ Oh, no ; your machinations were^ 
directed against somebody else. Well, 1 
am very much obliged to you, I am sure. 
You certainly know how to avail yourself 
of the privileges of an old friend ; and it 
isn’t a strict regard for ceremony that is 
ever likely to inconvenience you.” 

Lord Guise sighed. 

“ Ah, you are in a very different mood 
to-day from the one that you were in when 
I saw you last,” said he. 

‘‘That was an interlude; I told you so 


LADY BELVOIR'S REVENGE 255 


at the time. Occasionally one does like 
to forget the truth about one’s old friends 
for an hour or two, if one can.” 

“ But perhaps you don’t know the truth, 
Sybil. Anyhow, I jdon’t want to defend 
myself now ; I only want to defend you 
against yourself. I have a horrible fear 
that you may be tempted to throw your- 
self away upon a little, low-born alien.” 

“ Oh, you really would consider that 
throwing myself away ? I should have 
thought that, setting one thing against 
another, you would have placed me pretty 
much on the same level with Mr. Schneider.” 

“ You say that to vex me, not because 
you believe it. For Heaven’s sake, Sybil, 
don’t make the mistake of imagining that 
any amount of wealth could atone to you 
for the humiliation of calling that man your 
husband.” 


256 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

“He is a very decent sort of man in his 
way,” said Lady Belvoir. 

“ Your butler and your coachman are 
very decent sort of men in their way, I 
have no doubt. Come, Sybil, I don’t often 
ask a favour of you, do I ? At least promise 
me that, whatever happens, you won’t marry 
Schneider.” 

“ Why should I make such a promise ? 
I have told you already what my views 
about these things are. There is one right 
person ; all the rest are so very much alike 
in point of repulsiveness that it is hardly 
worth while to draw distinctions between 
them.” 

“ Is there a ‘right person’ in your case ?” 
asked Lord Guise ; and his voice was not 
very steady as he put the question. 

“ Who knows ? If there were, I should 
hardly tell you, should I ? At any rate, 


LADY BELVOIR'S REVENGE 257 


I don't think any such person is likely to 
interpose between me and Mr. Schneider.” 

Lord Guise remained silent. Within 
him was raging a desperate conflict, of which 
his interlocutor was fully cognizant, and 
which she watched with much satisfaction 
through her half-closed eyelids. It ended 
abruptly after the fashion in which she had 
quite anticipated that it would end. Start- 
ing to his feet and grasping his hat, he 
said : 

“ Well, I can do no more than protest, 
and that isn’t much good. All the same, 
I felt that I could do no less. Good-bye, 
Sybil ; thank you for having listened to 
me so patiently.” 

“ Not at all,” answered Lady Belvoir, 
politely ; “ it has amused me very much 
to listen to vou, I assure vou.” 

With that she gave him her hand and 

• 


258 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

a queer look which caused him to lower 
bis eyes hastily, and the interview ter- 
minated. 

About an hour after this a smartly- 
attired and complacent-looking gentleman 
ot low stature stepped briskly up to the 
door of Lady Belvoir’s mansion and in- 
quired whether her ladyship was at home. 
This gentleman was not unknown to her 
ladyship’s domestics, who may have received 
instructions respecting him ; for he was at 
once admitted and conducted upstairs. Mr. 
Schneider had perhaps no right to look 
complacent or to feel hopeful ; yet the world 
had gone so remarkably well with him of 
late that his self-confidence, if illogical, was 
not wholly unnatural. During the summer 
and autumn he had largely increased the 
number ot his aristocratic acquaintances ; 
he had had a singularly successful racing 


LADY BELVOIR'S REVENGE 259 

season ; he had become a Member of Parlia- 
ment, and he had looked into his affairs 
with most satisfactory results. Finally, he 
had been informed, through what had ap- 
peared to him to be an inspired channel, 
that Lady Belvoir had arrived in London. 
All these things caused him to believe that 
his star was in the ascendant, and his heart 
beat high with joyous anticipation as he 
mounted the stairs with which he had been 
so agreeably familiar six months before. 

Yet, after the lapse of barely half an 
hour, this favourite of fortune might have 
been seen retracing his steps with a sadly 
crestfallen mien. As he passed out of the 
door, he glanced suspiciously at the servants 
to see whether they were smiling ; he 
actually forgot to smooth his hat before 
putting it on, and he wandered off in an 
aimless way, as if he neither, knew nor cared 


2 6o the baffled conspirators 

whither he was going — which was in truth 
the case. Possibly it was unconscious cere- 
bration that took him to a club of which 
both he and Lord Guise were members ; 
for it is certain that of all people the last 
whom he desired to see at that moment 
was Lord Guise. 

Lord Guise, however, desired very much 
to see him, and it was Lord Guise's habit 
to take what he wanted. He took poor 
Schneider by the arm and led him into an 
untenanted room. “ Well," said he, “ what 
luck ? Of course I know where you have 
been. ,, 

“ It’s all up," answered Schneider, 
gloomily ; “ she’ll have nothing to say to 

me. 

Guise made an effort to conceal the 
satisfaction which he felt and evince the 
sympathy which he did not feel. It was 


LADY BELVOIR'S REVENGE 261 


not a very successful one ; but that was of 
little consequence, for his friend was not 
looking at him. He said : 

“ Well, you see, Schneider, no woman 
likes to be cut. You would have done better 
to go abroad, like Thorold and Moreton.” 

“ Oh, it wasn’t that,” answered Schneider, 
gazing despondently at the carpet ; “ she 
knows I couldn’t help myself, and she said 
she quite understood that it was all your 
doing — as of course it was. No ; the fact 
of the matter is that there is some other 
fellow.” 

“ Did she tell you that there was ? ” 
asked Lord Guise, quickly. 

“ Not in so many words ; but I think 
she meant me to take it that there was 
somebody. She said— but after all I don’t 
know why I should tell you what she said ; 
it wouldn’t interest you.” 


262 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

Lord Guise, however, was of opinion 
that it would interest him greatly, and 
Schneider was prevailed upon without much 
difficulty to relate what had passed between 
him and Lady Belvoir. It appeared that 
she had been perfectly frank with him. 
She had confessed that an increased income 
would be extremely welcome to her ; that 
she was free from any prejudice as re- 
garded pedigree, and that for him indivi- 
dually she had just about as much regard 
as she had for most people. Neverthe- 
less, she found herself unable to accept 
his offer. 

“ Whatever one's convictions may be,” 
she had told him, “ one can't alter one’s 
nature, and mine, unluckily, has a taint of 
romance in it which is apt to crop up at the 
most inconvenient moments and upset all my 
plans. Little as you might suppose it to 


LADY BEL VOID’S REVENGE 263 

look at me, I am just one of those women 
who form a foolish attachment and sacrifice 
everything to it.” 

“And then,” observed Lord Guise, “you 
naturally wanted to know the name of the 
man to whom she had become foolishly 
attached.” 

“ Well, yes ; but of course she wouldn’t 
tell me. However, it was easy enough to 
guess. When I remember the things that 
Moreton has said to me about her, I must 
say that I agree as to the foolishness of 
the attachment ; but that is her look-out 
and his, not mine.” 

“ Oh, you think Moreton is the 
man ? ” 

Mr. Schneider hadn’t a doubt of it ; but 
it is scarcely surprising that Lord Guise 
should have arrived at a different conclusion. 
He got rid of Lady Belvoir's discomfited 


264 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

suitor as soon as he could, and went home 
in a very troubled and irresolute condition 
of mind. “ I will not,” he muttered, 
repeatedly, “be a fool.” Yet he went on 
to ask himself whether a man who does 
what will at least secure him a brief period 
of supreme happiness can be properly called 
a fool— -which is a most dangerous line of 
thought to follow out. One thing, at all 
events, he was determined upon, and that 
was that he would abstain for the present 
from calling in Carlton House Terrace. The 
representations of an old friend might or 
might not have been instrumental in causing 
Lady Belvoir to decline Schneider’s millions ; 
but assuredly these would not be needed 
in order to bring about Moreton’s dis- 
missal. That young gentleman was no- 
toriously inconstant and had no money, 
no talents, nothing in the world except 


LADY BELVOIR'S REVENGE 265 


his handsome face. And Sybil would not 
abandon all ambition for the sake of a 
handsome face. “ She isn’t old enough for 
that yet,” Lord Guise reflected somewhat 
cynically. 

It was therefore without any inward 
feelings of uneasiness or uncertainty that 
he encountered Moreton in Pall Mall a few 
days after this, and inquired pleasantly 
whether New Zealand was a nice sort of 
place to spend the winter in. 

“ Not having spent the winter there, I 
don’t know,” answered Moreton ; “ as far 
as I got, it didn’t strike me as the kind of 
place where I should care to live. How- 
ever, as the governor paid my expenses 
out and back, I didn’t mind having a look 
at it ; and I dare say the voyage did me 
good.” 

“ You certainly look more fit than you 


266 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

did when I saw you last,” observed Lord 
Guise. “ Come into the club and have 
some lunch ; I should like to hear whether 
your spirits as well as your health have 
improved since then.” 

At first Moreton was not disposed to 
be communicative upon this point. “ Oh, 
bother ! ” he said, when questioned ; “ what’s 
the use of talking about it ? ” But a bottle 
of champagne had a softening influence 
upon him, and eventually he consented to 
gratify his host’s curiosity. 

“ I fared no better and no worse than 
I had expected,” said he. “ I went through 
the form of proposing to her, because I 
was almost bound in honour to do that ; 
but it didn’t surprise me in the least to 
be reminded that last year was last year. 
I never deceived myself about her ; I always 
knew just exactly what she was, and that 


LADY BELVOIR'S REVENGE 267 

if there was the ghost of a chance for me 
at one moment a delay of six months 
would be enough to extinguish it six times 
over. Its odd how ungenerous women 
are ! She took up the line of declaring 
that it was I who had changed and that 
she had foreseen from the first how it 
would be. Then, when I accused her of 
having trifled with me, she admitted it in 
the most unblushing way. She said she 
had only wanted to show me that she 
could bring me to my knees if she chose. 
That’s a nice sort of confession to make, 
isn’t it ? ” 

“ I dare say she knew that you wouldn’t 
break your knees, or your heart either,” 
remarked Lord Guise. 

“ I don’t see how she could know 
anything of the kind. But of course not 
seeing a person for six months does make 


268 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

a difference ; and then, as I tell you, I 
had no illusions about her. She’s just 
what you have always said she was — a 
thoroughly bad lot.” 

“ I don’t recollect ever saying that.” 

“ Oh, come ! Besides, it’s what every- 
body knows. Well, I’m free to admit 
that you and the other fellows did me a 
good turn, though I don’t think I’ll renew 
my membership at the end of the year. 
One can’t tell what may happen, and per- 
haps if you sent me to New Zealand 
again I might not be able to feel that I 
had had such a good deliverance as this 
time.” 

“It is pleasant to have one’s wisdom 
and foresight recognised,” observed Lord 
Guise; “still everybody isn’t a weathercock. 
Schneider and Thorold have stood the test, 
and one of them has had his reward.” 


LADY BEL VOID’S REVENGE 269 

“ Ah, so I hear. I’m sorry for him, 
poor chap, because Miss Leslie didn’t strike 
me as a very amiable young woman. At 
the same time, one must allow that she 
hasn’t a stain upon her character — which 
is more than can be said for certain other 
ladies whom we know.” 

And now, to Moreton’s great astonish- 
ment, he received one of the sharpest and 
most dignified rebukes that had ever been 
administered to him. 

“ That is a speech which no gentleman 
ought to make,” said Lord Guise, “and 
I hope you won’t make it again. Sybil 
Belvoir has flirted a good deal, first and 
last, as we are all aware ; but you 
haven’t the slightest excuse for saying 
anything worse of her, and I wonder that 
you don’t feel how cowardly such insinua- 
tions are. Women, of course, are given to 


270 TIIE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

whispering away one another’s characters ; 
but I really do think that a man ought to 
be above that kind of thing.” 

Moreton, much abashed, stammered out 
a sort of apology, which Lord Guise inter- 
rupted by saying, curtly : “ Well, don’t let 
it happen again, that’s all.” After which he 
changed the subject. 

This was all very well, and it is only 
right that one should take up the cudgels 
on behalf of one’s absent friends ; but the 
unfortunate thing was that Lord Guise was 
not quite as certain as he professed to be 
that Moreton had no excuse for speaking 
as he had done. He tried very hard to 
think that Sybil was neither better nor 
worse than other pretty women upon whom 
admiration is forced ; but he was not entirely 
successful. He could not forget circum- 
stances which were within his own know- 


LADY BELVOIR'S REVENGE 


271 


ledge, nor did he much like that cool 
confession of hers that she had ensnared 
Moreton for the mere purpose of showing 
what she could do when she liked. If that 
was her motive in one case, why should it 
not be in another ? Then he began to say 
to himself that, after all, he had no right 
to throw stones. Tout comprendre cest tout 
pardonner , and it isn’t so very difficult to 
understand the feelings of a woman who 
has loved in vain and who is pestered all 
day and every day by the attentions of 
lovers who are simply wearisome to her. 
Such a woman might find a not unnatural 
consolation in avenging herself upon the 
whole of the opposite sex. And supposing 
that, after the lapse of years, she should 
find that that “ right person ” of whom she 
had spoken had really loved her all along, 
though perhaps he himself had scarcely been 


27a THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

aware of it ? Would she not then be- 
come again what she had once been, 
and might not the sponge be passed 
over events which neither he nor she 
could wish to recall to memory ? Quid 
si priscci redit Venus , diductosque jugo cogit 
aeneo ? 

It was in meditations of this nature 
that Lord Guise indulged during several 
consecutive days ; and everybody must see 
how perilous they were. He himself saw 
it, and had recourse to the old remedy of 
flight. He was seen no more in London 
during the early part of that session, when 
Mr. Schneider took his seat as Member for 
Slumberton, and Percy Thorold gathered 
fresh laurels as a debater; and if anybody 
missed him it did not, at all events, 
appear to be Lady Belvoir, who was in 
the best of good spirits at that time. 


LADY BELVOIR'S REVENGE 273 


Mrs. and Miss Leslie were duly invited to 
Carlton House Terrace, and the trous- 
seau was purchased with the aid of their 
hostess’s taste and experience, and the 
conduct of the latter lady continued to be 
in all respects exemplary. Then, shortly 
after Raster, a w r edding took place down 
in Westmoreland, which was attended by 
many personages of high degree, but at 
which Lord Guise was unable to be pre- 
sent, by reason of certain pressing engage- 
ments elsewhere, the nature of which he 
did not specify. 

Percy, in talking this over with his 
bride, confided to her a very strange idea 
which had come into his head. 

“ There’s something queer about Guise,” 
said he ; “ he doesn’t write like himself, 
and Moreton told me that he had spoken 
about Sybii in a way — however, I may 


T 


274 THE baffled coxspirators 

be quite wrong. Only I can't help think- 
ing that he is a little bit smitten, and 
that he is afraid to trust himself near 
her” 

But busy statesmen, who can allow 
themselves but a brief honeymoon, cannot 
be expected to trouble their minds much 
about the eccentricities of friends who are 
out of sight ; and it was with loud ejacu- 
lations of amazement that Mr. Thorold 
perused a letter which he found waiting 
for him at Venice some weeks after his 
marriage. 

‘‘Just read that!” he. said, tossing the 
sheet over to his wife. “It really is beyond 
everything ! ” 

And this was what Dorothy read : 

“ My dear Thorold, 

“ As a year has now elapsed since 


LADY BEL VOIR' S REVENGE 


275 


the constitution of our ‘ Bachelors’ Mutual 
Aid and Protection Society/ and as the 
society has died a natural death, none of 
us having signified the intention of renew- 
ing his pledge, I do not, of course, owe an 
account of my actions to any of you. Still 
I think you may be interested in hearing 
that I am engaged to be married to Sybil 
Belvoir. I have no doubt that you will 
set me down as inconsistent, and probably 
you will make merry at my expense. As 
a matter of fact, I am not inconsistent at 
all, nor have I changed my ideas with 
regard to matrimony. I still think that 
most people blunder into it without know- 
ing where they are going ; and as I have 
allowed a good many years to pass before 
taking this step, I do not consider myself 
open to the charge of having acted 
precipitately. However, I make you wel- 


276 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

come to the admission that until lately 
I have had an altogether mistaken 
opinion of Sybil. You, I am sure, have 
a mistaken opinion of her still ; but pos- 
sibly Mrs. Thorold may induce you to 
alter it. 

“ Ever yours, 

“ Guise.” 

“Well,” asked Percy of his wife, 
“ do you think you can make me 
alter my opinion that this is a shocking 
plant?” 

“ I don’t understand it,” Dorothy replied, 
thoughtfully. “ I knew that she intended 
to make Lord Guise propose to her, but 
I am almost sure that she didn’t intend 
to accept him.” 

And when the news of Lord Guise’s 
engagement was made public there were 


LADY BELVOIR'S REVENGE 


277 


a good many people in Mrs. Thorold’s pre- 
dicament. Some professed to know that 
Lady Belvoir was marrying a second time 
out of pique ; others, better informed, re- 
marked that Lord Guise would soon be 
a duke, and was already a very rich man ; 
only a few were bold enough to aver that 
she had fallen in love with that middle- 
aged, red -bearded philosopher. To the 
present day no explanation of the phe- 
nomenon has been vouchsafed by the only 
person who is in a position to give an 
authentic one. Possibly, after digging a 
pit for another, she fell into the midst of 
it herself ; more probably her motives, like 
the motives of most of us under most 
circumstances, were mixed. In any case, 
her husband does not appear to have re- 
pented of his bargain as yet. But he 
looks a little sheepish when he meets Mr. 


278 THE BAFFLED CONSPIRATORS 

Schneider or Mr. Moreton, and it is certain 
that he has forfeited the respect which 
those gentlemen once entertained for his 
judgment. 


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